Guest Author - Adam Alexander - BEing the Change

In the second of my Guest Author Series in response to my ‘Unearthing Lost Treasures’ article I'm handing 'be the change - tread the path' over to another wonderful writer and a good friend - Adam from 'Adam's Peace'. This is another site of which I value my subscription and Adam's articles based on the subject of Peace in all its forms have incredible depth and feeling. Adam has been through many changes and has recently returned to his roots asking readers to submit questions which he then answers in a manner that is enlightened and very sincere. This all comes together to make excellent, thought-provoking reading.

As a suggestion you could start by reading Adam's response to my question "As we (the human race) appear to be accelerating towards a point of Spiritual Growth or Ascension, what do you see as the greatest hurdle and why?" which you can find at 'Path to Ascendancy'. His answer touches on one of my major sticking points with Society with the sentence “we wouldn’t be able to mark a specific day on our callendar and say that we became an adult, mentally…”. Call over and read the rest.

While you are there why not take Adam up on his offer and use the Contact Form to leave Adam a question, then see for yourself how he develops the answer in ways that will resound deeply within you. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Adam to my site and without further ado I'll hand you over.

Hello, I am Adam Alexander of Adam's Peace. Adam's Peace is where I explain how to bring peace into your own life with the goal of bringing peace to everybody. I'm guest blogging because I could not resist the urge to give something back to Damian, who has helped me incredibly over the past several months in my own pursuit of peace.

Now, I realize that a blog isn't only created by the author. The author takes feedback from his readers and changes his opinions and rewords difficult concepts, learning and growing along with the audience. The feedback comes in the form of emails, comments, or even just the site statistics. Because it is impossible to fail to communicate, I would like to thank the entire community around Be the Change - Tread the Path, which happens to be my own community as well, by sharing the useful information that I have learned from Damian.

I would like to talk about why Being the Change works.

First, though, I think it is more fair to explain why being the change doesn't work for a lot of people. The number one reason is because those people just aren't changing. Yes, they're talking about changing, and planning on changing, but that doesn't work. If the ancient Egyptians had planned to build a pyramid, drawing the placement of every brick, researching the tools needed, and doing everything necessary to start, but nobody showed up, then nothing will have been built. The same goes for my life. There are times when I plan out the most functional websites, complete with very rich, very powerful tools, but then, I just don't start writing out the code and nothing ever comes of it. I can write a to-do list the night before, but unless I pick it up the next day and start doing each and every task, none of those tasks will get done, unless by habit alone.

The only time that we can do anything is right now. Yes, time goes on, and we remember the past, as well as plan for the future, but the simple act of procrastinating almost always guarantees that we will never even start. Hours turn to days, and days turn to weeks, and pretty soon, we're left looking at our past, wondering where the decades have gone.

Right now is all that we have, and by not taking advantage of this very moment, we are not being the change, nor are we treading the path. If you decide to stop reading this post now, with the promise to start reading again later, I won't hold it against you... If you're feeling the urge to get something done, well, these words will still be here when you return.

Now, why does being the change work, when we're living that change right now?

First of all, nobody respects a hypocrite. There is little point in trying to change anyone if you do not demonstrate that you have already made that change. If you are trying to teach other people that living in poverty is good for your spirituality, then do not put ads on your website. If you are a manager, and you are trying to motivate your employees, then get down in the dirt along side those employees and show them how it is done every day. If you are trying to bring peace to everybody, then show others that you live a peaceful life.

Of course, don't be arrogant about demonstrating your changes. Simply let others see what you are doing in your own life, and let them make the decision to mimic you.

Secondly, you gain experience that can be helpful in teaching others. This helps those who you want to change immensely, since there is little point in re-inventing the wheel. If a person who wants to make changes that you recommend comes up to you asking for advice, would you be able to give good advice if you have never taken your own recommendations? If I convinced everybody to go bungee jumping, a task that I've never done myself, then would it be wise to ask me how to attach your harness? Can I give good advice on how long and elastic the bungee should be?

The third reason why being the change works in changing the world, is because you get the benefits of changing your own life. Albert of Urban Monk is talking about Aristotle and his description of the pursuit of happiness. In it, he mentions that every person has different activities that make them happy. Without changing your own life, you can not know what truly makes you happy, and you will, instead, adopt society's half-hearted attempt to describe what success and happiness should mean to you.

Without taking the time to make a change in your own life, you will let your dreams and aspirations fall to the wayside as you strive for what society tells you that you should dream about. Is driving a large truck fun? How about owning that large truck, making the payments, paying the mechanic, and being bled dry by rising fuel costs? Some people wouldn't care about the difficulties of owning that large truck, but others would care deeply and it would make them very unhappy. Owning a business seems glamorous to many people, but most recognize the stress involved, including struggling to make the business self-sufficient, constantly worrying about laws that you don't know about, but you might be breaking anyways, and the great hunt for good customers and better employees. Personally, I think that owning a business, especially overcoming these obstacles, would be a very fun challenge.

The final and probably best reason why being the change works, and works well, is because you will affect people that you will never meet. Just by living by your own personal values, acting right now to improve your life and the lives of those around you, you plant the seeds of change in everyone you meet. Most will ignore that seed, but a few will nurture it, and let it grow until they are the change that they want to see in the world. They will, in turn, 'pay it forward' by planting seeds of change in other people. One small change can, if given enough time, revolutionize the world.

I would like to close by repeating that being the change only works if you are the change right now. You can't change the past, but you can learn from it. You can't experience the future, but you can plan for it. The only time where you have direct power is right now, so be the change now, and you'll receive all of the benefits that come with treading the path. Peace and joy come from not just being able to change gracefully, but by being the change that you want to see in the world right now.

I'd like to thank Adam for that brilliant article which is acts as a wonderful 'taster' which I hope has whet your appetite and stirred you enough to follow the link to Adam's Peace. I know it will be worth your while :-)

Take care and by BEing the change may you find Peace in your life,

Damian