My private practice has really picked up and couple that with the seminars I have been doing and I have feverishly been working. One thing that has really jumped out at me of late is the fact that sometimes people come to me implying “I want to keep doing what I am doing but this time I want things to change.”
I think it was Einstein who said “Madness is to keep doing the same thing over and over but each time expecting a different result.” Now before you think I’m being mean… just hear me out. I do understand that we are all creatures of habit and desire to remain in our areas of comfort and yet deep down we pray for change. However, I also understand that there is that push we have to give ourselves to resist inertia and move which may also mean having to laugh at our mistakes but also reward ourselves with the fact that we have learned something along the way.
Lately I have been reading up on the new science of metacognition, or put simply: thinking about thinking. Metacognition directs us to become self aware and realize how we tend to think about things and then adjust our thinking when we encounter one of our triggers to think in the old way. For example: If left to my own devices I would sit in my home office and work on a million different projects that do not require me to interact with people. So when I have planned an outing and then find myself coming up with an excuse not to go, I tell myself “you’re coming up with excuses again” and push myself to just… GO! My gallery is a testament to the thousands of pushes I have had to give myself and the fun I had when I did. I know you too have done the same; meaning: talked yourself out of doing something, grudgingly did it, and then remarked on how much fun you had after you did.
There is something in our brains that likes to keep repeating patterns no matter how harmful those patterns can be sometimes. We want to keep doing the same thing but this time somehow things will be different.
And so I challenge you: when you feel yourself falling back into those patterns that have not gotten you what you wanted, tell yourself “I’m doing it again” and just GO!