As a child, we run around from one thing the next believing we can do anything. Yet often by the time we reach early adulthood, we have a very fixed view of ourselves and other people. Bad experiences often lead us believe to that human beings are incapable of changing, and to turn away rather than give them a second chance. But how true is that declaration?

Well, one thing is certainly true; change certainly doesn't come easy. We enter adulthood with twenty-plus years of ingrained habits and conditioned thinking, and already by that time we tend to accumulate a bucketload of regrets and worries. Plus, in order to change, we have to overcome the desire to stay in our comfort zone, which can often be quite powerful. Change means stepping into the unknown which can be quite a scary prospect, and also it means we have to sometimes confront parts of ourselves we'd rather sweep under the carpet. It's probably not surprising then, despite talk of 'self-improvement' being part of many people's vocabulary, that very few people approach the task with any real intensity.

But none of this means that the task of overcoming your imperfections is an impossible one. Far from it. History is littered with men and women who aspired to break free of their imperfections and succeeded. As with anything in life, the ultimate factor in whether you succeed is whether you want it badly enough. How many times have you done some yoga or meditation course or something similar, only to move onto something else within a week or so? Change is something that requires the perseverance to see it through to the end. And to have that perseverance, you have to have feel the need for change from deep within, and you have to bring this aspiration to the fore and intensify it in your life.

When wondering what do in order to begin this monumental task, listen to your heart. You will find that when you really commit to change, you will begin noticing opportunities everywhere to make that happen - an invitation to enter the marathon, to go on a weekend yoga retreat, to participate in the work of that volunteer group you've always been interested in...opportunities can take any form under the sun. Most (if not all) of them will entail stepping outside the comfort zone, which means the mind might have a few objections, so make sure to let your heart be the final arbiter of the decision! Start putting in place small daily practices that support your determination for change - improving your diet, daily exercise, and finding some time each day to explore who you really are.

One thing that helps considerably is a regular practice of meditation. It has the double effect of putting you in touch with your inner being and that inner yearning for change, and also giving you glimpses of the tremendous joy, peace and effervescence that lie beyong the 'dark clouds of your imperfections. There are many good resources for meditation out there - meditationworkshop.org [1] is one such recommended site to help you start, there are also many meditation articles [1] on this site. The basic premise of meditation is the stilling of the mind (often the source of many of our imperfections) long enough for us to explore the deeper part of our being that lies beyond our thoughts. And when we get to know that deeper self, that's when the imperfections that lie on the surface start to fall away.

The crucial thing is never to give up. Change is a long process that will often feel like one step forward, two steps backward. In fact, it is often when you commit to becoming a better person that your imperfections will rise up to challenge you in a way they never did beforehand. "As long as the doubt-tiger is confident enough that you will stay with it all the time, it does not feel the necessity to threaten or frighten you", explains meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy. "But when you start trying to come out of your bondage-cage, the ignorance-tiger tries to prevent you. It attacks you most vehemently with doubts and other undivine forces as soon as it feels that you are threatening to leave it." However, you should actually be happy and grateful that this is happening, for as Sri Chinmoy puts it, "The sooner your imperfections come to the fore, the sooner you will be able to face them and conquer them. So when doubt and other imperfections attack you, you should say, “You have come. Now let me conquer you once and for all. Then I will be free.” "

The other important thing when these bad qualities do rear their ugly head, is not to identify with them and feel they are part of 'you'. Many people give up in despair and self-loathing after a setback, because they see nothing else to themselves but the imperfection, whereas the imperfection is merely something covering the real you inside. When successes do come, write them down and use them to inspire you during times where the going is not so good; you will then be able to revisit these successes and remind yourself that they were always worth whatever struggle you had to go to achieve them.

This article was featured on the Carnival of Truth [2]: I enjoyed reading some of the other entries too...