Though not universally true – some things are just too singular to inhabit the world of change – it is generally true that there is always an alternative. Often the characteristic identifies the alternative as compensation for defeat of the original purpose. This is an unjust label. Change – whether adjustment, conversion or adaptation – is as often “up” as it is “down”. While I won’t suggest that chance and change are in any way etymologically related, I call your attention to the derivation of the word “change”; that is, “from late Latin cambiare, from Latin cambire ‘barter’, probably of Celtic origin (Wikipedia)”. As the word suggests, trade, traffic and exchange are part of the bargain.

The manifestation or other expression of change is, as a result, frequently either cast off or ignored. The commercial imperative is too unpalatable. I though prefer analysis from another perspective. In my opinion, nothing happens without a reason. Why it should be otherwise in our personal realm I cannot imagine. When practicing law I learned that any suspicion I may have had was worth pursuing.

And while it may titillate you, my dear Reader, to contemplate the reason for what happens, the more compelling inquiry is manipulating the ensuing alternate, whatever the reason behind it. If this sounds tactical, it is. Indeed it is the overruling predominance of the strategy that preserves its worth. The objective is oneself.

Here I must take an inductive leap and say that people mostly just want to be happy.  I am very aware of the “don’t worry, be happy” silliness. Yet I need to state the objective that simply in order to emphasize not only its simplicity but also its goal. So, given that the agenda behind a change is one’s happiness, I say, “Keep doing it!”

The initial hint of this directive (whatever that hint for change may have been) was an important signal to oneself to go for it. After even the first step towards the alternate, one must credit oneself with the sense to acknowledge the natural bubbling of these inspirational thoughts. The real talent in becoming who you want to be is the discovery of your personal frame and reliability (basically: who you are). The conclusion therefore is that, we do what we do because it makes us happy. This is not to deny that we’re also obliged on occasion to do what does not make us happy.