Assignment: what motivates people to change
Everything around us is always changing. People also keep changing everything in their lives it might be their house, profession or their car. But why do people change? Sometimes it is to better their lives. Sometimes people change when something happens to them like a defining moment in their lives. There have been great figures in history that have gone through a change when something defining happened to them.
Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who lived in a kingdom in Nepal. Siddhartha’s father always guarded him form pain and suffering in the outside world. But one fine day Siddhartha out of curiosity, ventured out into the streets of his kingdom with his charioteer. This is where he saw people suffering due to disease, old people and corpses. Siddhartha was oblivious to the fact that people can age and then eventually die. When he saw so much suffering around him, he decided to leave hi s kingdom and live his life meditating in the forest. Siddhartha eventually attained enlightenment and we now know him as Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. As we can see that this one defining moment in Siddhartha’s life, made him into one of the most famous figures in history. Gautama Buddha’s journey of change and enlightenment encouraged many others to follow in his footsteps.
Ashoka the great was a ruler of the subcontinent of India. He ruled over a large kingdom but he always desired more. His greed for power grew until there was only kingdom which remained unconquered in India; the kingdom of Kalinga. But Ashoka was fuelled with his greed and he sent his whole army to attack Kalinga. After a long battle, Ashoka came out victorious. Ashoka , after the war visited the kingdom of Kalinga to be declared its leader. But there Ashoka saw the damage he had caused. The gruesome sight of corpses strewn all over the streets and the widows wailing made Ashoka feel contrite. Ashoka, to clean his sins stopped his conquest of other kingdoms and became a Buddhist. He lived the rest of life spreading the principles of Buddhism and bringing peace to all the towns and cities in his kingdom. One event in Ashoka’s life changed him forever.
Change is always motivated by the desire to reform oneself. Throughout history people have changed to be a better person. But this change is not always for the good. For example Hitler , who started following fascism after he experienced failure and disappointment after the first world war. So we can see that sometimes people change for the worse.
“Change is the only thing which is constant in the universe”. Change is a part of everyone’s life it may be a small change of a life defining change. These changes are what make us a better human being by realizing our mistakes and improving upon them, like Gautama Buddha. The prospect of being a better human being and doing something good for the people around us is the most basic motivation for people to change. Just like Ashoka, we need to change ourselves not just for our own good but also sometimes for the greater food of other people.
I have tried to improve and also tell me if the length of the essay is enough or not. Thanks in advance