To Conform is To Enervate

should've added this a long long time back...anyways, better late than never...

Through the entire matrix of human development, from the Stone Age to the man and his civilization as we know it to be today, CHANGE is the only constant. All human progress is the outcome of a mind that questions what is, and dares to dream and realize what it could be. All growth can be attributed to this courage, to step beyond the tangible into the realm of creativity, to question the relevance of traditional practices, to innovate with a zeal to contribute, unfettered by social conditioning or the need to conform to an unserviceable law or a custom which has lost its validity.
This attitude exists as a commonality in all great personalities who have made significant contributions towards growth and development of man. If a handful of people can contribute path breaking views such as the Energy Equation, Theory of Relativity, Laws of Gravity etc., then imagine the huge potential of the millions of human minds which can go unexplored and unexpressed; wasted just because they were constrained by a mind conditioned by convention, restrained by a fear to step beyond the known.
The quantum leaps in the quality of human existence have resulted only when someone believed that there is a better and more efficient way to do something other than the traditional methodologies that we are comfortable with, and that there is something more to life than what meets the eye. It is only then that man has outperformed himself, and rediscovered his true potential.
A case in hand is the developments of the communication systems, in history from mere beating of drums and using smoke signals to sending messages through birds and couriers, followed by the e-mail and the latest avatar , the SMS.Incremental improvement only leads to incremental change. As a result of ever-developing technologies and fast changing socio-economic situations, change is avalanching upon us, and if it is not met with certain preparedness, its speed may overwhelm us. The trouble with being on the right track is that you still experience the risk of being run over if you just keep sitting there! Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if not altered for the better, by design. He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. Growth, after all, is the only evidence of life. In the words of William Blake- “The man who never alters his opinions, is like standing water. He only breeds reptiles of the mind”
Flexibility, adaptability, and open-mindedness are far greater virtues as compared to the non-threatening, safe haven, of the known systems and predicted results. Unpredictable, valuable discoveries have been made and exponential learning has been made available due to the out-of-the-box thinking whenever a questioning mind has ventured assertively to explore higher possibilities.
This courageous act is the direct outcome of a man assuming absolute responsibility of his life and actions which in turn provides for the ultimate experience of true freedom for it is then when life and situation do not control him, and man actually steps out of the cocoon of a comfort zone to create his own set of rules, live his values, realize his dreams, fulfill his possibilities and express his true potential- living and experiencing life and freedom, truly and fully, to the hilt.
It is only in man’s imagination that the truth finds an undeniable existence. Rules of the society as we know them today, and our sense of reality is the creation of our own minds. If we created these, we should realize and exercise our ability to create a new order- to reinterpret reality, to recreate life itself.