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ASSIGNMENT –II (Quality Management) “Change is the only constant” ASSIGNED BY: SUBMITTED BY: RUPAM BARUAH BARSHA DUTTA ASSAM INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT “Change is the only constant” Life is continuously changing. People move, children grow up, careers change, health is compromised, people gain their health back, the climate changes, and life cycles begin and end.
Whether a person can adapt to these changes and become a proactive participant in a constantly changing world is a key component in “full development” or maturity. To illustrate this point, let us look at life from two different perspectives. On the one hand, the immature child is dependent on those around him or her. On the other hand, a mature adult is responsible for those around him or her. Being responsible makes the ever changing circumstances of life a lot more challenging. The adult or fully developed human is a participant, not a spectator, in the process of life.
Fully developed adults create their present circumstances and sometimes have to react to unexpected circumstances (often very difficult ones) in positive ways. Children observe life’s circumstances with little or no concern for or affect on the outcomes. Many adults never reach full development; that is, they fail to mature. They may mature in certain aspects of life, such as their work life, their financial life and/or family relationships. But they are unable to move beyond instant gratification in other areas of life, the most obvious of these being substance use and a tendency towards drama-filled relationships.
Physically these folks grow up, but emotionally and mentally they develop ways of coping using the many techniques that they used as children. They hold tightly to their childhood drive for immediate gratification. These non-matured adults create a form of “victim-hood” because for them the world and its flow of changes are perceived as just too tough to handle. They become frightened, may have panic attacks, and develop debilitating fears. They often develop phobias toward everyday responsibilities of living.
Their careers are shaky, their relationships struggle, they feel a sense of impending doom, and they tend to become maudlin and depressed. Childhood coping mechanisms that are used in adulthood, such as tantrums, pleasure seeking and comfort seeking are sometimes methods that are used to avoid needed change. The result of this is usually plummeting self-confidence, loneliness, despair, depression, anxiety, lost resources and emotional instability. The individual watches others move on to build joyous lives while he or she wallows in yesteryear, trying to hide from today’s responsibilities.
All of this is based on the desire to be happy, but because of the perceived lack of options, the person keeps returning to activities, methods and relationships that bring only fleeting moments of happiness, usually followed by remorse and self-pity. The most defining characteristic of fully mature people is their ability to initiate and embrace internal and external changes. Adaptation to change is native to everyone. Yet, some do not accept it, no matter how much unhappiness must be endured to reject change or to ignore normal adult responsibilities.
Look at a person embittered by the untimely death of a loved one and who becomes incapacitated because of the loss. Or, the financial head of a household who is unemployed because of downsizing and dwells on the lost physically these folks grow up, but emotionally and mentally they develop ways of coping using the many techniques that they used as children. As time goes on, it becomes far more fearful to think beyond their status quo than to accept their status quo. We become “happy,” or unhappy, depending on one’s point of view, in their unhappy negative condition.
But life’s progress does not stop and everyone must learn to adapt. Even some of the most outwardly successful people who have completed this program are astounded at the level of immaturity with which they had been living. To find out how open we are to the process of personal change, a further understanding of certain universal life truths is needed. We must realize that there are certain indisputable axioms that do not change. These axioms produce the benefits, health, happiness and structure of everything in the world.
Maturity and joy are the results of enthusiastically embracing and putting into action these truths. Each of these axioms becomes obvious as we grow and change as individuals. Selfishness is an inherent part of childhood and for most people this trait continues through adolescence. Selfishness in the human young is a survival mechanism. When a baby is hungry, it cries. It doesn’t know or care what everybody else is doing; it only knows that it’s hungry. This selfish behavior is rewarded. Every time the infant is hungry, it cries.
The infant learns cause and effect: I cry—I get fed. Inexplicably as the infant matures into a toddler and begins saying words, its cry changes. Characteristics of a toddler’s cry as compared to an infant’s cry are dramatically less compelling. The crying that worked well as an infant does not work nearly as well for the toddler. Adolescence is that period between childhood and adulthood during which time our perceptions change and it frightens most of us as we struggle through it. On the other side of adolescence is where adulthood and maturity awaits.
Having enough life experience and increasing our ability to keep an open mind will allow for the natural maturing process to occur. However, keep in mind there can be snags along the way. It is the purpose of this article to introduce the concept of maturity and the topic of Universal Axioms. Then you will begin to be able to identify what areas of your life lack this maturity. You will then be given the tools to create a path for yourself that will pull you out of your immaturity and into a life of change and open-mindedness. This will ultimately lead you to a happier more fulfilling life. SOURCE: www. scribd. com