After all, haven't you tried many times to change things about yourself? Haven't you also seen others try to make changes? And didn't these changes take a lot of time to complete, if at all? Wasn't it difficult to make these changes? Look back over your life. Based on so much evidence, didn't it make sense to conclude, “Change is difficult, takes a long time, and doesn't last?”
That certainly is one valid explanation of your experience. But consider this. What you've seen is that you and perhaps others couldn't make changes quickly and easily using the techniques you knew about at the time, on your own, or with the help of some specific people. That is true. But can you say with absolute certainty that you could never learn anything from anybody that would enable you to make changes quickly and easily in the future?
Please think about this for a moment. Can you be absolutely certain that you could never make changes easily and quickly using any techniques or with assistance from anyone…?
Couldn't your experience of using so much time and effort trying to make changes in the past also mean: I haven't found a way to make changes quickly, easily and permanently yet, but that does not mean that it can't be done?
Today people fly airplanes, go to the moon, have heart transplants, talk to each other around the world without wires, and watch television. All things that would have been considered impossible a century ago. And given the technology that existed, they were impossible at that time.
So instead of saying those things were impossible a century ago, wouldn't it have been more accurate to say: We don't know how to do them now, but that doesn't mean they can never be done?
Can you see that your conclusion, “Change is difficult, takes a long time, and doesn't last,” is only a description of the way it has been in the past and not an absolute fact about the future?
Just because you've been unable to do it thus far doesn't mean that it can never be done, does it?
Please say these words out loud. “Change is difficult, takes a long time, and doesn't last.” Really say them out loud… Is this statement the truth…? It's not, is it?
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