WHY CHANGE IS A TWO WAY DEAL

When you know it’s wrong, make an effort to change.

I change, you change, we all change. Agree?

Whether it’s for the better or not is the final question.

Once I changed from blue jeans to green jeans. Since it was in grade school when the dress code was strictly enforced by peer pressure it didn’t go well.

Levi jeans and converse tennies were the approved uniform. Out on the playground during recess I got a hard lesson. I changed from a normal kid to ignore, to Mr. Greenjeans.

I didn’t like my new name from the start, and like any kid with a problem and an older brother, I ripped them and blamed him.

This was before ripped knee jeans became a style. No one wore ripped clothes to school way back then. My green jean days were over early.

Blaming someone else was so convenient. But was it the right thing to do?

In junior high I wore glasses, the kind with huge temples like Aristotle Onassis. Don’t ask why.

During a disagreement with a sibling that didn’t work out in my favor, I struggled to find a way to get even.

When my parents got home they learned how hard life was when I showed them the glasses I broke in order to get others in trouble. Not the best example, but I learned that change was harder than first suspected.

Without glasses I saw the error of my ways. And since framing others for my problems wasn’t the best choice, I made better decisions.

Change is habit, make it a good one.

I broke a finger one year after falling out of a tree. I ended up with a splint on my finger, the kind that fits underneath with malleable metal bands on top to keep it tight.

During a disagreement I weaponized the splint by taking it off and using it as a blunt force instrument. Later I saw something similar in The Godfather when Sonny weaponized a garbage can lid to pound his brother in law. I also broke the bands on the splint.

My folks saw what had happened and decided they’d had enough doctoring for their boy, leaving what’s called a baseball finger. I call it the perfect guitar finger since it’s ready to hit the frets.

The big takeaway from early problems that went unsolved no matter how much they got thrashed out was make a change for the better, and if that’s not good enough, find another way.

What happens when the old ways are so deeply ingrained that change is impossible? Look for a model to follow.

For example: