No matter what you do, there are inescapable patterns in life. The sun rises, seasons change, people come and go, and cats will loudly rattle the blinds if you sleep too late. These things just happen. You either learn to live with them or you suffer from the constant reminder that you cannot change these things. Well, except for the cat situation, but let’s not go there.
Stating the Obvious
We all know these things to be true. We can fight it, argue about it, and pretend patterns don’t exist, but they have been known and documented since the dawn of time. If you’ve ever read from the Bible, you’ve undoubtedly read the words of Ecclesiastes: “What has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Not a fan of the Bible? How about The Byrds? If you haven’t heard “Turn, Turn, Turn”, you should consider climbing out from under that huge rock you call home.
My Patterns
Should I tell on myself? Not entirely. I have a lot of patterns I wish I could change, even some good ones that I would like to make better. Truth is that I am inherently lazy and find comfort in the patterns around me. But is it being lazy? Or is it understanding myself well enough to know that I may as well refuse the sun a chance to rise in the morning? “Of course you can change, if you really want to!” say the people who constantly say such things. On schedule. As if it is a pattern of behavior that they cannot change.
What To Do?
As one of my mentors likes to say, go after the low hanging fruit. Look at the patterns in your life that you want to change. Pick the easiest thing and work on that for a bit. Or take a large change and find a smaller piece of it to change. Want to stop biting your fingernails? Maybe start by making a change in how often you trim them first.
Honestly, I don’t know. I’m no expert on changing habits and such. I’m just a guy who knows that as soon as he decides to change a pattern, he’ll get distracted and forget what changes he decided to make.
