Not a final exam

I attended a talk by Amira Hass a couple of years ago where someone asked her if the protests we saw in Israel that summer would bring about social change.  In her answer, she said that social change is not like a final exam.  It's not a one time event that we prepare for, execute and then forget about afterwards.

That's true for a lot of things.

Maybe the problem is that we're in school for so long that we forget this.

Life isn't a series of semesters where you take a course, write the exam, pass and get the certificate.

It's about showing up every day and doing what it takes to make things work and make things better.  Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year...

It's how relationships work.  How businesses work.  How society and social change work.  It's how life works.

It isn't a final exam.

Changing the condition of a people

On how small actions can have a huge impact...

We recite to you from the news of Moses and Pharaoh in truth for a people who believe.  Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a sector among them, slaughtering their [newborn] sons and keeping their females alive. Indeed, he was of the corrupters. (Qur'an 28:3-4)

This is the story of a people who were subjected to the oppression of one of the worst oppressors who had ever lived.  Fir'aun divided the Bani Israil, he suppressed a group of them, slaughtered their sons and enslaved their women.  It's hard to imagine a more oppressed community than the
Bani Israil at this time.

And We wanted to confer favor upon those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them inheritors.  And establish them in the land and show Pharaoh and [his minister] Haman and their soldiers through them that which they had feared. (Qur'an 28:5-6)

But Allah wanted to change the situation.  He wanted to grant them bounty and power on Earth and make them leaders of humanity.

Given their conditions under Fir'aun's rule, what sort of change would be required to take this community from being the most oppressed people to to being leaders of humanity?  It must be something extraordinary.  So what did Allah do next?

And We inspired to the mother of Moses, "Suckle him; but when you fear for him, cast him into the river and do not fear and do not grieve. Indeed, We will return him to you and will make him [one] of the messengers."  (Qur'an 28:7)

The first step that Allah takes to to reveal to Musa 'alaihi salaam's mother to nurse him and throw him in the river if she is afraid for him -- such a seemingly insignificant step in relation to the huge task ahead...

We should never belittle our roles in the process of change.  The entire process may take a long time -- generations in the case of the Bani Israil.  Allah's promise to them was not fulfilled until the time of Sulaiman 'alaihi salam.  But indeed Allah's promise was fulfilled.

Our position now is not worse than the position of the Bani Israil.  And as we have seen Him change their condition, we have confidence that He will change ours.  How and when and by who is up to Him, not up to us.  Our job is to submit to Him and do our jobs in whatever position He has placed us in.  And just as we learn from the example of the mother of Musa 'alaihi salaam, we should never belittle our role in the process of change.

More than we are

Sometimes, circumstances require us to be more than we are.  Stronger, braver and wiser than we know ourselves to be.  We can retreat, citing our inadequacy.  Or we can step forward, recognizing the need.  We can shrink into the shell of what we know ourselves to be.  Or grow to become more than we are.

Positive deviance

When there's a problem I want to solve, the first thing I do is start analyzing the issue.  I come up with all sorts of theories about the problem and its probable causes.  I can spend ridiculous amounts of time reviewing and analyzing my analysis.  But it doesn't get me any closer to the solution. 

Just knowing that a fixed mindset prevents me from writing doesn't make me more able to write.  That's not to say that this knowledge or awareness is useless.  It's just not enough.  Just wanting to fix something is rarely a sufficient condition to making that change.

What is useful is trying to find incidents of positive deviance.  These are those rare incidents when, instead of things going wrong as usual, things actually go right.  The idea is to learn from those times when things went right and try to replicate them. 

For example, those times when I successfully overcame the paralysis trying to think of something to write, how did I do it?  Or on the days when I woke up early in the morning, how did I do it? (Answers: I used 750words.com to get writing and to wake up early, I slept early.  Sleeping early also requires finding some positive deviance.  One thing I found was that when I exhaust myself during the day, I can't stay up late even if I wanted to).

Positive deviance has been used to fight malnutrition in Vietnam (read more in Switch), Guinea worm in Africa (read more in Influencer) and the spread of infection in hospitals (read more in Better).  With that sort of successful history, it might actually have a chance at helping me write every day and turn myself into a morning person.