PATTERNS
Let''s take a look at this mind of yours. When you walk across the road, do you have to concerntrate on every step? When you chew gum, do you have to think about it? When you eat a slice of pizza, do you have to work at digesting it? "... now if I can just fix this pepperoni, I can relax and go to sleep." When you sleep, do you need to concentrate to keep breathing?
You don''t do any of these things with your conscious mind, do you? You do them with your subconscious. we might say that the mind is like an iceberg. There is the part we see, the conscious, and the much larger part we don''t see, the subconscious. Our subconscious mind is responsible for a large slice of the results that we get in our life.
When we find history repeating itself in our lives, it is that part of our mind that is responsible. Many of us have recurring patterns - the same old experience or behavior keeps on cropping up.
Do you know somebody who is always late? I used to play basketball with a fellow who was always late. We would play basketball during the weekends and I would say,
"David, we''re playing hoops tomorrow at 7:00 a.m."
He would say, "I will be there."
"Have you got that time?"
"7:00 a.m., I will be there."
Sure enough, at 7:15 next morning David would arrive. He had all the excuses. "My son borrowed my sneakers and put it under his bed." Next week, the same thing would happen. At 7:16 David would arrive. The reason: "I got cramps when I woke up!" The following week, he would arrive at 7:15 sharp. "The goldfish got sick and the baby was crying." And so on through the flat batteries, power failures, lost car keys and underwear that was left wet in the washing machine.
Finally, I said, "David, let''s make a deal. For every minute that you''re late from now on, it will cost you a dollar." He hurt his shoulder the next day and we have not played basketball since.
He thought that the world was doing it to him! He was not trying to be late consciously, but on his subconscious he had a programme that said "you are always runnig behind"... and that programme was running his life.
If David had accidentally got up early and found himself on target to arrive on time, his inner programmes would have helped him find a tree to hit, or a strange road on which to get lost. He would have then taken a deep breath and said, "That''s more like it - I am back behind the eight ball!"
We''ll have more on different patterns on the next articles soon...