Change

Why don't we change for the better?  As someone said, "Only a wet baby likes change."  Change is painful, so we avoid it, that is, until not changing is more painful than change.  Say you don't like to exercise and people tell you it will be better for your health, but you feel ok, or not too badly, so you don't exercise.  Then you go to a doctor who examines you and says you will have a horrible and painful dying unless you exercise.  So then you exercise.  Change beats non-change in this case.  Surrender to a new way of life is not so heroic as we like it to sound.  Often we surrender out of fear of old patterns.  I never met an alcoholic who said their initial reason to stop drinking was it made them healthier, or feel better.  Alcoholics drink to escape feelings.  Eventually, the exerciser may come to like exercise, and the drinker to like sobriety.  Otherwise, old patterns will win out.