Jolts Inspire us to Change!

When we are young we try to change the world. When we are older, but yet not gray, we realize that the world cannot be changed and we think that we know the reasons why. When we turn gray, we don’t feel the need to change either the world, or anything within it. We then sit in our verandahs watching our grandchildren play around us, drawing solace from their fresh innocence. When our grandchildren grow into young men and women full of energy, and they want to change the world, we don’t have the heart to tell them that they can’t – and that the big changes in the world happen through a chance pattern of different events that are related in different ways!

We humans have lived our lives in these cycles, ever since we first began to think. Most of us but not all, realize that bringing about a lasting change in this world isn’t a job to be accomplished in a lifetime. To make the reality of chaos more tangible, we speak of the intervention of fate – and to assuage our conscience we tell ourselves that it couldn’t have been done by one man, or one woman…alone!

What is true?

Among us, there are many who now have reached the middle of our lives. We look ahead to only as many years as we’ve left behind. Let me recount my own experience with time through these years.

As a child, I can remember thinking of old age as something that was far away. Something that couldn’t touch me for a long time to come. Then when I was older, in my twenties – I would think of myself as someone who had already lived for twenty long years, and who could still live another sixty. My parents looked young to me…and I felt safe and happy.

Then as I inched towards thirties, I began to feel the responsibilities. I realized that each new day ended like any other. My tens and teens had passed slowly. They gave me memories that I still cherish. Those years were rich with fun and learning! Then when I hit mid-twenties, I slowed down and life paced up. Memories from these years are blurry. They stayed blurry, until five years ago, when a series of jolts (that I should’ve slept through,) woke me up – and reminded me of my pledge to do my bit – for this world.

The jolts were of the most common kind, but the chance pattern that they formed meant something to me. The jolts were cognitive and affective – they were like shots of L-dopa for my mind that was beginning to go off to sleep. On the cognitive front, despite my mental lethargy, I had learned the application of a discipline (instructional design) rather well; and on the affective front, my job penalized me for my skills! My refusal to toe the line must’ve resulted in quite a few interesting stories in my time – I’ve heard some of them. Then there were some other jolts of personal kind too. All these together, with their peculiar sequence and their inter-connections, jettisoned me out of my professional slumber.

“Do something, “ I told myself. “Change the world.”

I inventoried my skills and I realized that among all my skills in instructional design lay the potential of changing the world. I knew that if people could make learning fun – they could change the world. Unfortunately, around me, what I saw was the death of this desire – people weren’t really concerned about making learning effective, they were concerned about finishing their job and going home. You know why? It wasn’t because within their hearts they didn’t want to do the best for the learner, but because they didn’t know that there was a way to do so.

It was not a small promise to keep. I knew that this mission wouldn’t be accomplished in a day, a year, or may be even a decade; but I also knew that if could build even a small fire – the true firebirds would find it, and in their beaks they’d take away their share of the fire, and light the paths of many…and then after a while, we together, would’ve changed the world.

We can’t do it alone, it’s true. But together we can. All we should have is an honest desire to trade value for value. All we need to do is – resist the urge to “produce acceptable content” and be done with the job – we need to create “effective content” and spread learning. We need to learn only what we wish to learn, not what we have to – for then we’d be going through our lives with our minds asleep…instead of driving the wheel, then we’d be just cogs in the wheels!

Every little difference that we can make by being alive to our own feelings and needs, changes the world towards the better! All the great differences that we may want to make by reflecting the needs that are not our own, and by toeing the line drawn by another without our acceptance of the line – burdens our world a little more. Having done both, I assure you that you’d sleep better, and your life will seem more meaningful – if you find your jolts and feel them.

Do it now. Don’t let life buzz past you…let it roar and rise to make your days rich and memorable.

Author: Shafali R. Anand