Motivation of Making Changes
Animals know to migrate, possibly because their survival is threatened; plants know to adapt, partly because their nutrient is insufficient; nevertheless, figuring out why human beings make changes is surprisingly difficult, but also worthy.
“Change” has very broad meanings and ways. In order to explain the motivation of making various changes by people, I would simply divide changes into passive changes and active changes.
External circumstances, incidents and pressure would stimulate passive changes, which are common everywhere. At school, as a student, one couldn’t do anything one wants as one did in the holidays, one is required to follow the rules in school instead. Socially, a person in sexual minority must hide the information about it and try to love what normal people like. Furthermore, an adult may need to abandon hobbies and interests, then find a job one dislikes in order to raise the family. In each example, the changes made are forced by authority, society and life needs. If a person keeps making changes by outside force, as time passes, he won’t be able to change actively.
Therefore, a much more crucial motivation of making changes comes from within. This kind of “active” change is mainly propelled by inherent emotions. In some situations, a proper and positive emotion, such as ambition, desire and happiness, from deeply inside would bring huge benefit to a person. For instance, compared with a ordinary person who wants to stay stable on his position and make no changes, an ambitious competitor, who aims high and would like to make better changes, could grab more opportunity of promotion and achieve higher positions.
Not only positive feelings but also negative ones could benefit a person tremendously such as hate, fear, shame. For instance, in “Hamlet”, Hamlet was initially a pure and kind prince with no disturbance and anxiety. After his father died, however, with hatred and desire for revenge in Hamlet’s mind, he matured rapidly and eventually was able to fight against his uncle. Changing from a unenlightened teenager to a informed leader, the inside hatred of Hamlet played an indispensable role in this transformation.
In fact, the ability of making change “actively” by inside mind could be dominant in any environment. Here, the “inside thought” is the most important source of the motivation of making changes.