Internal change X External change

“We know who we are, but we don’t know who we can become” (Shakespeare)

Hello friends!

One of the most fascinating subjects we have in the faculty of psychology is anthropology. Anthropology, to put it briefly, studies the different cultures around the world. And isn’t it fascinating that people act differently if they’re in the midst of another culture?

So, if we take a baby born in Brazil and take it to Japan, after 20 years it will be a Japanese adult. This is why many people think that the mind is like an empty board (tabula rasa) in which we can insert information relevant to the culture so that the baby becomes an adapted adult: teaching a language, customs, habits, morals, what should and what not to be done, &c.

So, for there to be change in someone’s behavior, we should shift the focus from internal change, in what the person thinks and feels, to external change, the environment in which the person lives.

However, if we look at TV series like Super Nanny, we will see that the external change, in the environment, does not necessarily change the behavior. Or it changes only temporarily. Maybe it doesn’t change because the environment hasn’t really changed (the parents continue to do what they did before), but maybe “what’s inside” hasn’t changed and therefore different environments, same responses.

The question of whether we should invest in internal change or external change is an interesting one. However, it seems to be one of those gotchas like what came before: the chicken or the egg? The individual or society?

In fact, it’s a question that doesn’t have a yes and no answer. It’s this or it’s that. External change can be useless if there is no real internal change. And the internal change can also be useless if there is no external change.

For example, you can change an employee’s environment, propose a higher salary, but if he is not motivated to work, it will not be an increase in salary that will make him feel more motivated. (An interesting example from anthropology is the experience with factories in African countries. Many employees started working and worked only for a month, because their objective was to get just a salary to buy something and then they didn’t want to continue, because they didn’t need more money).

And, on the other hand, if a subject starts to motivate himself, to read self-help books, to have positive and constructive thoughts, but, over time, if he does not have a positive response from the environment he is in (if the consequences end not being reinforcing), the internal change may not be sustained, and the previous way of thinking returns.

So there is an overlap between internal change and external change.

When the disciple is ready, the master appears

This phrase is an old phrase. So old that it’s impossible to know who said it. But we find it in different cultures: in Chinese, Japanese, Hindu culture…

In this text, it will be useful to make us reflect on the union of the need for internal change and external change. If the disciple is not prepared… what good is having a master? If the entire external environment is conducive and conducive to real change, what good will it do if the internal change doesn’t follow?

Another phrase with the same meaning is the one that says that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. That is, we are prepared and we have found an opportunity. Ready! That’s lucky! But is it really luck?

the use of time

In the book Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi shows that, regardless of culture, we all have a more or less similar use of time, since we have news, since we have written history. We all have 24 hours and, in these 24 hours, we spend part of the time eating and going to the bathroom and, adults, we spend part of our time seeking to meet our needs (work) and entertainment and fun.

What basically changes from one culture to another is what is work and what is play. In a tribe, work can be fishing and fun picking lice off each other’s heads, or work can be in front of a computer and fun in front of a computer. However, the time spent on each activity does not vary as much as we might imagine.

So we can’t change our physiological needs. We have to sleep about 8 hours a day, we have to eat, we have to go to the bathroom and we have sexual needs. What can we change?

Answer: time spent on work and time spent on play.

If we change our work, our day to day work, and if we change our fun, whatever it may be, we will change what we can change.

Conclusion

It’s curious how similar we are and it’s curious how different we are. We are equal in the needs of the body, which imply a proportionally similar use of time. But we are different from other cultures in what we choose to spend our time in, work and entertainment.

It’s amazing to see people saying they don’t have time, while spending 4 to 5 hours a day on TV or, in the case of younger people, on social media!

Anyway, it’s funny when the power goes out and there’s no TV or internet. There is an external change, the lack of light, but is there an internal change? An opportunity is only an opportunity if it is seized…

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