Over the course of our lives, we go through many experiences that shape us — or at least these experiences try to. If we are blind and deaf to what each experience teaches us, then our character cannot be shaped and that’s the problem many of us carry inside.

Our human heart is just so full of itself, so convinced that it knows better, that it can never be wrong, that we often miss the learning point in an experience.

When it hits us — the rude awakening of being shown we are wrong — we can react in one of two ways. We can wake up and humbly learn our lesson, or we can stubbornly maintain our pride. The first means we learn and grow; the second means we have become too proud to be taught something new.

Our mind needs renewal because it grows old. As the years go by, if we don’t keep refreshing the spirit of our mind, we start getting really old spiritually and mentally. This means old ideas, old ways and a resistance to change. So we stop growing and we get left behind. Younger (and fresher) minds begin to pass us by and we become a boring, resentful caricature of our old self. Then we blame the world for having changed.

“Change is difficult but often essential to survival.” – Les Brown

So next time your current views or beliefs are challenged by better views, don’t be proud. Go ahead and change yourself – it’s for your own good.