Traveling down the same mental path produces the same result every time. That may be advantageous sometimes, but most often it leaves you at a disadvantage.

I have a friend who never entertains anything other than Veal Parmigiana anytime he eats at an Italian restaurant. The good news is he loves Veal Parmigiana and never tires of it.

There are others who are dissatisfied with what life serves up never knowing they have cooked the meal.

Their exasperation is generally expressed as "Why me Lord?" or some form of "They're out to get me," "I'm right,""They don't get it" or "I can never catch a break."

They rarely link up the results they get with the behavioral path they walk time and again. Their stimulus/response patterning is working well - so well that they're about to meet that brick wall face first again.

It's rare that we ever consider that it's us who has gotten us here - again.

Enter spontaneity!

Spontaneity is doing something different when you discover that you're on a path to familiar territory.

Spontaneity is throwing in the clutch and shifting gears instead of staying in automatic and heading for the trail of tears.

This is not a plan to have Successories come out with a poster that reads: "Be Spontaneous." That's as effective as telling someone to "Be Funny." It's more of a strategy to choose spontaneity.

If you are getting the same dissatisfying results over and over, you have lots to do with it - in fact, the lion's share.

The next time you notice that you're about to make a familiar choice, take a second to note what it got you before. A familiar choice is a fancy way of saying "doing it your way" again.

It may have very well gotten you the satisfied feeling my friend gets when he savors his first bite of Veal Parmigiana, or it may have left a bad taste in your mouth. When you notice, before you bite in again, you have set the stage for spontaneity.

Spontaneity is not something that strikes you, it's a choice - a choice that presents itself anytime you take time to notice your behavior.

If you choose to head in another direction, that spontaneous decision will unleash your creativity to manufacture something new.

Some of life's best moments come out of choosing spontaneity. If you stay in a self-righteous snit, you truly deserve what you get - another serving of "My-ala-commode" - the same old shit.

The minute you embrace that you are where you are because of the choices you've made, you have a leg up on just about everyone else. That recognition will cause you to pay more careful attention to your behavior. And when you get the gift of awareness that a certain, familiar behavior is going to get you into a contemptible mood, you can choose spontaneity.

Doing something different than you normally do creates a new pathway for you. You may not get the abbreviated, sanctimonious, sugar high you normally get by doing it your way again, but you do open the door to creative possibility - a door that doesn't swing in the direction of your familiar mood.

You got here by your behavior. If you want to go somewhere else, your behavior has to change. That change begins when you recognize your behavior about to engage and spontaneously choose something else. That's how your future becomes different from your past.

All the best,

John