You know the old saying "practice makes perfect"? Who doesn't, right? Well, it's total BS. I think "Practice Makes Permanent" is probably the better way to put it. 

The problem with practice making permanent is that it goes both ways.  

I hear a phrase in many companies and with leaders, I work with. It drives me nuts. "Many things we do are done the way we do them because it's the way that we've always been doing them."

It doesn't work because practice will only make perfect if what you're practicing has done perfectly, which is kind of hard to do if you haven't had the practice. 

(That was a lot. I'll give you a second to read that one again.)

So we have to be questioning and looking and being curious constantly. If you get into a pattern, right, that's practice, and if you get into a bad habit, you're practicing something bad, and practice makes it permanent. When we are in a particular state of mind, tired, frustrated, we tend toward the same patterns we have been practicing for a very long time.

It's us getting stuck in an emotional and behavioral rip tide.

We want to keep swimming directly toward the shore, but we can't. And because we're in it, we don't see that if we swim effortlessly 10 to 15 feet to the left to right, we're going to save our lives. 

Be on the lookout for patterns that you are in. These can be day-to-day patterns, hour to hour, or even month to month.

For example, how do you respond when things are going great, everything's terrific? And then something happens. You have a very stressful day, and you feel like you let yourself down, or you lost it in a situation that didn't warrant your full-throated response. 

Or you immediately respond to a request for anything with, "It's been crazy." Has it really? How do you define crazy? Are you using it as an excuse for an unmanageable situation of your own making? 

This week look for those opportunities to not necessarily do something different but identify and acknowledge what patterns you repeat and whether that practice should become permanent. 



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https://apps.apple.com/us/app/less-doing-peak-time/id1056219924

Make it an effective day.

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