Do you always do what you’ve always done?

I love the saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” It’s memorable and true, and often very overlooked in life.

I’ve always been a video game fan; I like the big, epic tales involved. Over the long, New Year holiday, I picked up a game on which I had read rave reviews. So with some free time to myself I decided to give it a try. I readied by character for battle and I plowed into a group of monsters - I was happy to be hacking and slashing away! My zest for adventure didn’t compensate for my character’s weaknesses as a new player in the world; the group overpowered me in moments and without much effort on their part I was dispatched back to the bone yard.

I recovered myself and tried again, “Have at you!” was the battle-cry running through my mind. Again, moments later I found myself back at the bone yard. I tried again and I found myself dead just as quickly.

In my excitement to try out the game and become a fierce warrior I had let myself fall prey to repeating the same, unsuccessful patterns over and over. I was doing what I had always done (rush into the mob), and I was getting what I always got (a quick trip to the graveyard). About thirty minutes into charging, dying, recovering and charging again I realized I was stuck in this pattern. Once I recognized this, I was able to apply myself differently - by drawing out the monsters one by one - and I handily defeated the mob.

Do you do this in real life? Do you rush in, always doing things the same way, but expecting a different outcome? If you don’t pay attention, it’s very easy to slip into this behavior.

We are pattern machines. Our brain loves habits because they feel comfortable. It’s very easy to experience a little success performing a behavior and it’s very easy to expect we can always get that result. Our brain is also very hopeful - it wants us to have the best things, the perfect relationship, or be amazingly happy. This combination of loving habits and wanting the best can lead us to expect that we’ll get better and better results from the same action, every time we perform the action.

The action of wanting to lose weight is a great example. Months ago I cut out non-diet soft drinks from my diet because I didn’t want to keep consuming all the empty calories. An unattended side effect was that I lost a little weight in the process. Jumping ahead several months, I caught myself drinking the full-calorie soft drinks again. I made another effort to stop, thinking that I might even take off a few more pounds and be able to put on some old clothes that were now too small. Again, I lost a little weight, the same as before, but I didn’t lose any more weight. At first I was a little upset, then a little angry with myself. It was only when I stopped and realized I had expected a different outcome from the same behaviour.

You should keep in mind that your brain wants to perform its habits - when it does you feel comfortable. You also should keep in mind that if you’ve tried something several times and were unsuccessful in achieving your desired outcome you shouldn’t keep trying to achieve your desired outcome the same way - it won’t work. You also shouldn’t expect that you’ll suddenly achieve significantly more than you did doing the same thing.

I know for myself it’s not always easy to keep this in mind. It can be a habit (a good one) to just remember to check your assumptions when asking why you’re not getting the result you expect or want. It’s easy to slip into old habits of trying the same thing over and over while expecting to achieve more or different results.

Try some of these ideas for a week and see what shaking up your patterns can do for you:

1. Wake up 30 minutes earlier than normal. You would be amazed at what an extra half-hour will do for you in the morning.
2. If you’re an office worker, don’t check your email until mid-morning at work. Trust that nothing is so critical it can’t wait for 2 hours before you reply. If something really is that critical, they’ll find your office and tell you. You can get a lot more accomplished when you don’t spend your morning checking and replying email.
3. Read a book or a newspaper in the evening instead of watching T.V. - If you already do this, listen to an audio program instead.
4. Challenge yourself to make one new introduction a day. If you’re in the grocery store, introduce yourself to an employee you recognize. You never know when it will pay off big to know that person.

These are just a few ideas to force you to shake up your patterns and hopefully make you realize that by doing things just a little differently you’ll get a new result, not the “same-ol-same-ol” you might be used to achieving!

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January 7th, 2006

Entry Filed under: Productivity, Success, Improvement