People Don’t Change, They Evolve
What if people don’t change? What if the change we see is an illusion? I often ask myself if people truly change. Does someone change from bad to good? I think it’s rare for people to change fundamentally. What we call change is often an evolution of self. Change, as it relates to black and white, is rare in humans.
Our experiences and knowledge certainly influence how we express ourselves to the world. A person’s core values and beliefs don’t change, they remain the same for most of our lives. But as the person gains more knowledge or goes through certain circumstances, the way they express themselves could change. It doesn’t mean the person has changed, they have just found a different method of expression.
The Role of Experiences and Knowledge
One of the examples that Christians would often cite of someone who completely changed is Paul (formerly called Saul). Paul was one of the persecutors of Christians of the early church, shortly after the departure of Jesus. He was feared in the Christian community. Scary times to be a Christian. But then, he had an encounter with Jesus (Acts 9:1–19) after which he dramatically stopped persecuting the Christians and started preaching the way of Jesus. He became an apostle and wrote more than half of the books in the New Testament of the bible.
It’s tempting to cite this example as change but I don’t believe that is completely accurate. Paul was a Jew so he believed in the God of Israel. The Jews generally did not believe that Jesus was the son of God while the Christians — followers of Jesus Christ — believed. The Jews believed in God, they just didn’t/don’t believe that he was/is the son of God. They believe he is one of the prophets but saying he’s the son of God and praying in his name (as Christians would do) is seen as blasphemy. So by persecuting the Christians, Paul thought he was serving God.
When you narrow it down, he always believed in God. He did not fundamentally change. What changed after the encounter was how he expressed his beliefs of God. And that is not change, that’s evolution.
Core Values and Beliefs
Core values and beliefs are instilled during the early years of a person’s life and it’s hard for those to change when they have taken root. When someone converts from Islam to Christianity or vice versa, they have not changed. At the foundation of both religions, there is a supreme being so either way, there’s a belief in a supreme being, a higher power. So the person’s core belief has not changed. What has changed is his expression of his belief, either through Islam or Christianity.
On the other hand, a person’s core value system doesn’t change. Someone who steals will always steal. Now, it doesn’t mean that a thief cannot stop stealing but when that happens, you have to check what drove the change. If you look closely, an unfavourable condition may have made the person start the bad habit. Maybe they didn’t have food to eat and stealing was a way to survive. So if one day, they are in the right environment where their basic needs are met and they don’t have to steal to survive, they stop. In this case, they were only stealing because of the conditions they found themselves in.
So fundamentally, people don’t often change. What you think is change is just your growing awareness of their evolution. That’s when you start to say “This person has changed.” That’s because:
The volume of their evolution just became loud enough for you to take notice
This is why self-awareness is important for everyone.
Self Awareness Plays A Key Role in Your Evolution
It would be best if you had self-awareness to reflect and see the things you do wrong and also the things you do right. It helps you to make adjustments so you can get better outcomes in the areas you are doing wrong. A personal example relates to how I started my career in tech. As a child, one of the constant questions I had was “How would I take care of my family?” With time and age, I realized that I wouldn’t be effective if I had to commute to work every day. So I started thinking of a career path that would allow me to work from almost anywhere in the world. And this ultimately led me to computer programming.
The point is self-awareness made me understand where I could be most effective and start to make steps in that direction. At the end of the day, change, as a concept of black to white or vice versa, is not common. What’s common is evolution, a person’s expression of themselves as they gain more experience and knowledge. And you need self-awareness to channel your growth and evolution in the right direction to become the best version of yourself.
