When Someone Says Something Has Changed the World, Which World Are They Referring To?

Subjectivity is something few of us truly grasp. If you are a parent, you have seen for yourself how at the age to two or so a child operates as if they are center of the universe. Everything is about them. Their favorite word is mine. “Mine, mine mine….” is a common auditory occurrence. It is not selfishness in the sense many of us define it, it is simply how they are experiencing their subjectively reality at this given point in their early stages of development. Many times, it is very evident that some of us seem to never transcend this state and the term given for this is arrested development. But how many of us truly grow out of thinking that we are we really at the center of things? Earl Shoaff, mentor to Jim Rohn, once said, “We are only children a little older than the other children, we are grown up children.” If I were to ask you to define reality, you would probably have little difficulty doing so. But what you would in fact be defining is your subjective reality, for the ‘reality’ that is empirical is one that few among us, with the exception of most physicists, are truly aware of. The world we exist in has been pretty much the same for the last few billion years. It will remain that way most likely until gravity causes the Sun to fall upon itself and ceases to exist which will be another four or five billion years or so. From the perspective of the universe, the planet, and all of its other inhabitants, nothing in the world has changed. So, when someone says something has changed the world, which world are they referring to? Quite simply, their own. Technology and the digital revolution is changing how many humans experience their existence, but not all. The Tikuna in Brazil, the Adivasi on the Indian subcontinent, or the Moken of southeast Asia know nothing of the internet, Coca-Cola, or social media, yet their world and reality is every bit as real as the one you experience. Changes come from the way you perceive things. Change is not anything that is ‘out there’. Change comes from the narrative you tell yourself about your place of life in the universe and your role in it and this all occurs in your mind. There are over one hundred and eighty countries recognized by the United Nations. The number of cultures and languages that represent the seven and a half billion people on this planet produce almost as many realities. The most significant change anyone of one us can experience is in the way we construct our narrative to define our existence and the plan for our future that comes from that. If you have been blessed by the wand of randomness, you possess the ability to be as creative as you desire with this. You can change your world and create for yourself whatever existence you choose. We are all subject to the immutable laws of physics: gravity, the law of thermodynamics, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, but few among us know anything about these things or that they are always even in play which illustrates our need to be aware of these things are not necessary for our existence. We are however given free rein in the narratives we construct for ourselves if we choose to develop and exercise this and it is this realm where you can change your world.