Tip of the Month: December 2006
From Mastery of Learning
Do It Differently
We tend to get habituated to a certain way of doing things. Don’t get me wrong—habits are useful. They help us make it from day to day. The problem is that when we get habituated to a particular way of thinking or doing things, we tend not to notice other things going on around us. When we are habituated, many things around us simply slip into the background and are not visible.
As R. D. Laing said, “The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.” One way to avoid this trap is to do things differently. It could be as simple as taking a different route to work, anything to break up your habituated patterns. I am in the process of breaking up my habituated patterns. It is perturbing and rewarding at the same time. It starts breaking up your habituated patterns to allow you to see things differently.
