What You've Always Done

In this session we contemplate the saying, 'If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got', using it to discuss a trap that we all fall into - feeling like simply 'doing more' and 'doing it again' will fix the problem. This track is taken from my course, ‘Live Your Most Fulfilling Life’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session.

I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable.

You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

In a moment I'm going to share with you a proverb,

Aphorism,

Idiom or saying for you to contemplate and I invite you to do so as deeply as possible.

To look beyond your initial default reaction to it.

To consider it from all sides.

To be open to it,

Guiding you,

Encouraging you and informing you of potential knowledge,

Insights and wisdom that may be lying just below the surface.

Our goal with each of these daily contemplations is to use the sessions to acquire a deeper understanding of ourself,

The world and our place within it.

So let's take another slow deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and consider the following.

If you always do what you've always done,

You will always get what you've always got.

If you always do what you always have done,

You'll always get what you've always got.

So this idea,

This saying,

If you always do what you've always done,

You'll always get what you've always got,

Sort of evokes that idea of the definition of insanity,

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

And yet I think it's a trap that most all of us fall into and I'm not saying that we're all insane.

What I am saying is that we feel like if we do it better,

If we do it again,

If we just do it more,

We will get it right.

It's like this perfectionism versus or including or as well as a fear complex.

If we just do it better,

If we just do it more,

If we just do it again,

If we just keep trying,

Eventually it will work out.

And don't get me wrong,

There is definitely benefits to consistency,

To habit establishment,

To a routine.

There's definitely benefits to a well-defined plan executed perfectly,

To form.

But in the discovery phrase,

In the part of your journey where you're still working out what you want to be doing,

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is,

Well,

A little bit insane.

I say that with jest because I fall into this trap as well.

You see people who want to grow a business,

Who want to grow their body,

To change,

To learn,

To do something different.

And they engage with the same strategies over and over and over again with minimal results.

When a different question,

A different pathway may yield further growth,

The exercise or muscle analogy is pretty good here.

You can do a certain exercise,

Let's say weightlifting,

And if you do it long enough,

Your body adapts and the gains stop accruing as exponentially,

As strongly,

As significantly.

And getting incremental gains after that initial boost is harder and harder because your body gets used to the exercise.

So what you have to do to get your body to grow,

Because muscle growth is a response to environmental stress,

Is to change the environment,

Is to change the exercise.

Rather than doing weights,

Go for a long run,

Do different sort of exercises,

Do different sort of things.

And in that way,

You are tricking your muscles into thinking they need to adapt and grow differently and more.

And thus,

You continue your fitness goals,

Right?

But I think the same is true to most all aspects of life.

In my experience as an artist,

As a poet,

There are certain ways that I know that I can get myself writing and inspired and sort of moving towards that creative path.

But seven,

Eight,

Ten books deep,

I've pretty much well exhausted that path.

And I can keep going,

But the results will be the same.

If I want to be innovative,

If I want to grow,

If I want to truly push boundaries with my creativity,

With my art,

I need to take steps to try something new,

Try something different.

You know what I mean?

The problem,

Of course,

Comes because we are creatures of habit.

We may see the need to change,

To try something different,

But making those changes are scary.

Indeed,

If you are living off your creativity,

Off your art,

Off your own back in business,

To change the method,

To change the approach,

To tweak the system,

Potentially has catastrophic or existential risk attached.

It's working,

It's not ideal,

It's not optimized,

So why would I change it?

That's scary.

You know,

I'm getting a little bit of growth,

One or two percent,

That's great.

I'm basically functional at my job,

That's awesome.

I'm living an okay life.

We're stuck in our comfortable ruts,

Because that rut is proven.

If I keep doing this,

I will get this result.

But the reality is,

Is that in fact that rut isn't proven,

We just think it is.

There's no guarantee that if you do what you've done,

You'll get what you've got.

This saying isn't necessarily true.

It's a pleasant fiction,

And one that we can delude ourselves with again and again and again,

And stop actually living our life.

If we can thread the needle and find the intersection between continuing what works and experimenting where things need change,

That might be the optimal response here.

If you've,

You know,

Unlocked the secret to success in any field,

Keep going.

But also have a part of your brain dedicated to this idea of change,

Of something new,

Of trying,

Of experimenting.

There's an idea in entrepreneurship that it's the right question that matters.

Asking the question is more important than asking for the answers,

Or getting the answers.

And the idea being that the act of asking a good question unlocks many,

Many different ways of thinking that you might not be even considering prior to asking the question.

A classic example is the move from candles or lamp oils to electricity to lighthouses.

That's a completely paradigm-shifting moment,

And one that's revolutionized the world.

You know,

What if,

To take it down a different path,

Another revolutionary thought concept,

What if we stopped holding doctors in such high regard and got them to wash their hands?

What if we stopped holding doctors in such high regard and got them to wash their hands?

Maybe that would help their clients,

Right?

Back in the day,

It was a little bit rude to ask a doctor to wash in between tending to people.

Now modern science tells us that that's a terrible idea,

But until we question the norms,

We're not going to change the results.

So I'm asking you this,

What norms are in your life,

Or in the world in general,

That we can question,

That we can change?

Can you start questioning?

Can you start making some changes,

Either individually or collectively?

But also conversely,

This saying,

This aphorism,

Is telling us that if we always do what we've always done,

We'll always get what we've always got.

If you hold that to be true,

And I'm not convinced it is true,

But if you do hold it to be true,

And you like what you're getting,

Don't change,

Right?

If you're doing something and it's working,

Keep going.

There's a sabotage aspect of a lot of our psyches that once we finally figure it out and get going and things turn out to be quote unquote good,

We start changing things up because success is scary.

It's scary to finally get what we want.

You know,

You try,

You experiment,

You tweak,

You change,

And then you finally get noticed.

You know,

You get the promotion,

You break through in your art,

You succeed and win the sports game,

Whatever it is,

And you pull back.

Of course,

This is scary.

If that's you,

Keep going,

Persist.

And turn the lens of attention inwards to those feelings.

And ask yourself,

Why am I afraid here?

What am I worried about?

Because those problems,

Those problems that will arise,

Because problems arise no matter what you do,

Right?

But those problems of success,

Problems you want to be having,

You can have problems no matter what.

I'd prefer to have the problems of success,

Whatever field I'm in.

So I ask you to consider,

If you always do what you have always done,

You'll always get what you've always got.

If you always do what you've always done,

You'll always get what you've always got.

So well done.

This brings us to the end of the session.

At the bottom of your screen,

You'll see the option to view the classroom or to ask a question.

And before moving on,

I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,

To answer the questions from other students and to hear my replies.

Remember to start your responses by restating the contemplation,

In this case,

Always done,

So we know which one you are referring to.

This is an opportunity for deep learning,

Further introspection and insight,

So please don't miss out.

I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

Thank you.

This track is taken from my course,

Live Your Most Fulfilling Life.

It's out now on Insight Timer and is available via my profile.

I invite you to check it out.

See you there.

Reviews

Thank you very much. I often tend to think of the phrase in connection with negative happenings. Thank you for helping me to see that it applies to positive changes too. Uplifting and inspiring.