“The Doer of Good is better than the Good itself; and the Doer of Evil is worse than the Evil itself”
- Imam Ali (as)
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."
- Aristotle
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”
- Thoreau
Do people change overnight? The answer is obvious (no). So how do they change then? Gradually, of course. (The above statements being not absolute rules, but the broad majority. Instantaneous change is possible, but rare, usually needing a really big catalyst).
Personality change is hard to explain. If the change is gradual, can it be accelerated? Can it be slowed down, yet still allow someone to say/think they are changing? How can you tell if you really are changing?
I'd explain it like this. Our selves are always changing, from second to second, minute to minute, and so on. But these changes are minute, almost imperceptible. And these changes are not consciously made. More like instinctively. As such, we are always changing, but we never know that we are, thinking that change only comes through conscious application of effort.
But change we do. And the cumulative change adds up, until suddenly we, or someone else, notices that we are not as we used to be - something has indeed changed. As such, change is both discrete and continuous, in that it is always happening, yet not noticed except in brick-like chunks. (you can then use the “bricks” to “build” or “change” your personality. It's a tortured metaphor. I apologise)
Change itself, the second to second, minute to minute thingy, is brought about by three things. Thoughts, words, and actions. Actions do more, and thoughts do the least, but they all account for our constant change. Hence the Hadith, as I understand it. The doer of good is better than the actual deed, for the doing of good has changed him, and he is now a better person. The converse holds for the doer of evil.
But people stagnate too, right? You look some people (or, God forbid, yourself) and think that they are the same they have been for years. All I can think of is the same starting premise - change is, for most people, unconsciously made. Over a day, a person might make a few steps in one direction, and then make the same in the other direction, all subconsciously. Thus at the end of the day, his net gain in either direction is nil, or if it is slightly more at the end of one day, it will be wiped out by the next day. So those who stagnate change as well, but their change over time is imperceptible, because so much of it is in opposite directions, just like how a graph that goes up and down, if looked at from a few steps back, will resemble a straight line.
The key then, as the other two quotes say, is conscious effort. Only when you are fully aware of all that you do, from second to second, can you then be fully in control of your own progress, your own change. Of course, that is extremely hard, but even in taking the first step, and being slightly more aware of what we do, and what reverses our progress, do we open the door to being even more so. .
The Holy Month of Ramadhan is one third gone, and in little over three weeks it will be fully gone. More than ever, in this period of time, we need to be fully aware of what we do, and do not do, for in this period of time our own potential growth is exponential. Don't waste it.
