When you try to bring about behavioral change by an effort of will, you actually do violence to yourself, and the chances are very good that you will not succeed. This is so universally true that you can actually make money from it.
Interpretation
Forcing change through sheer willpower can be detrimental and often ineffective.
This quote emphasizes that trying to change one's behavior solely through willpower can lead to inner conflict and ultimately result in failure. Instead of pushing against oneself, a more gentle and understanding approach to change may yield better outcomes, highlighting the importance of emotional alignment and acceptance in the process of personal transformation.
In practice
In a self-help seminar to discuss personal growth strategies.
I believe that if you don't derive a deep sense of purpose from what you do, if you don't come radiantly alive several times a day, if you don't feel deeply grateful at the tremendous good fortune that has been bestowed on you, then you are wasting your life. And life is too short to waste.
When something happens to you, suffering doesn't begin. Suffering begins at the instant you label a bad thing - as something that is wrong.
When you label so much of what happens to you as 'bad,' it reinforces the feeling that you are a powerless pawn at the mercy of outside forces over which you have no control. And - this is key - labeling something a bad thing almost guarantees that you'll experience it as such.
I grew up under the politics of my size and my skin. I grew up under the politics of the sound of my voice and a lack of agency, or a feeling of a lack of agency, and not always being able to find myself in images that were in the media.
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
What we are living with is the result of human choices and it can be changed by making better, wiser choices.
If each of us works toward making a sincere effort when we wake up each morning with a renewed commitment and dedication to embracing nonviolence as a lifestyle, this world will become a better place, bringing us ever closer to the Beloved Community of which my father so often spoke.
Globalization is exposing new fault lines - between urban and rural communities, for example.
We will remember that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea:- Yes. We. Can.
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