January 08, 2026
Change is funny.
Not ha ha funny.
More like quietly unsettling.
It shows up whether you asked for it or not. Your body changes. Your habits change. Your tolerance for nonsense definitely changes. And still, a lot of us keep pretending we are the same person we were years ago. Or even yesterday.
That tension sits right at the intersection of today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day. One talks about permission. The other exposes how hard it is to actually take it.
Thought of the Day
“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” — Alan Watts
On paper, this sounds freeing.
Almost radical.
You can change your mind.
You can soften.
You can stop doing the thing that is clearly not working anymore.
And yet, most of us do not live like this is true.
We cling to old versions of ourselves because they are familiar. The person who never complains. The person who pushes through. The person who does not make a fuss. The person who walks it off.
There is comfort in identity, even when it hurts us.
I think about how often change happens quietly. Not with fireworks, but with a subtle internal shift. A moment where you realize you are tired of pretending you are fine. A moment where you admit something aches more than it should. A moment where you recognize that stubbornness is no longer strength, just habit.
I wrote once about how change can be still, not dramatic, in The Stillness of Change (And the Mystery of Peanut Butter). Real change rarely announces itself. It just waits for you to notice.
Alan Watts is not saying you must change. He is saying you are allowed to.
That permission matters more than we admit.
Question of the Day
How often do you see a doctor?
My honest answer is not often enough.
I grew up in what I call the walk it off generation. You only went to the doctor if something was obviously broken, bleeding, or turning purple. Everything else was Motrin, ice, and denial.
That mindset sticks around longer than it should.
Even now, knowing how much medicine has advanced, I still hesitate. I wait. I rationalize. I tell myself it will pass. And if it does not, maybe it just means I need to toughen up.
I even have a sister who is a doctor, and I still don’t go when I should.
That voice is not wisdom. It is conditioning.
There is a difference between resilience and neglect. I learned that the hard way while reflecting on how time quietly punishes what we ignore in Time and Neglect Kills Everything. Bodies are not exempt from that rule.
Here is the uncomfortable truth. Sometimes going to the doctor is not about weakness. It is about respect. Respect for the fact that you are not the same person you were at twenty. Respect for the people who depend on you. Respect for the future version of yourself who will have to live with the consequences of what you ignore today.
Walking it off works until it does not.
And when it stops working, stubbornness is not bravery. It is avoidance dressed up as toughness.
Change does not mean abandoning who you are.
It means updating the parts that are no longer serving you.
If today is the day you finally admit something hurts, physically or otherwise, that counts as growth. If today is the day you stop pretending you are fine, that counts too.
You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago. Especially if that person refuses to ask for help.
If these daily reflections help you slow down and notice what is actually going on inside you, consider joining the daily email where the Thought of the Day and Question of the Day land quietly in your inbox each morning. You can sign up for the daily newsletter here.
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