Due to the recent hurricane, we were without power for a few days. Our routines changed. I can’t remember the last time I played “500 Rummy,” but I know I never played by candlelight.

We went to bed earlier and there were no TVs or computers, but ample batteries for the flashlights so we could read. We were inconvenienced but thankfully not ravaged like many others in the storm’s path.

The power came on 2 days later and things quickly got back to . . . “normal.”

It got me to wondering how many times we return to our routines after having a brush with a challenging situation in our life. If we just go back to the way it was, did we really learn anything from the experience?

The logical thing to do is to assess what we did to get ourselves in that precarious position and then take preparatory steps to avoid arriving at the same place again. Here’s the sad news: Logic doesn’t rule our lives – our routines do.

We do go back to the way it was more often than not and painful lessons are not our teachers but, rather, ghosts of our future.

Just like our power had to be interrupted for us to execute new behaviors, we have to interrupt our personal routines that take us to the same destination so we can arrive somewhere better.

Interruption is an agent of change but it must be applied regularly in order for it to have long term results. Interrupting a behavior once is not long-term effective; doing it repeatedly is a proven program for change.

I can’t tell you the precise number of interruptions of behavior that allows change to take place; I only know that the method works. It’s sort of like spit shining shoes in the military. In basic training you are given a pair of leather boots with porous grain and you have to get the toe of the boot to shine like patent leather. It requires a process of filling the holes in the leather with polish and then dipping your polish cloth in water and rubbing in circles where you just placed the polish. Then you repeat the process again and again and again – more polish, more water. You keep rubbing in circles and it seems like the shoe will never shine, until that one moment when you see a portion of the toe begin to look like a black mirror. Yahoo!

Interruption of behavior is the tried and true method for change; we just have to work at it. It may feel like you are going in circles, but at a certain point a light shines through and there is no going back to the “normal” you.

All the best,

John

ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING
LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF
STOP SMOKING FOREVER
SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT EVERY NIGHT
IMPROVE YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE
I LOVE MY BODY
RELAX IN 2 MINUTES
FEEL FOREVER YOUNG
VIRTUAL MASSAGE