Predictable Future; A Look At Productive Behavior

How to predict your future through past behaviors, and then change the behavior to benefit your FUTURE.

We all know that making predictions about the future is an almost impossible feet. If someone was in possession of a crystal ball even then looking into the future is at best guess work. The future is always changing. Every action which leads to a future outcome is like a river on an ever changing path. When water encounters an obstacle it changes direction flowing towards its final destination. But even as these directional changes occur there is a way of knowing where the river will end.

Life is much like that river, always flowing to a specific destination. The journey of life is us engaging with obstacles which ever so slightly changes the rivers path. If we pay close attention to the obstacles which shape us, we can understand our destination. Each obstacle in life give us a chance to change a past behavior that we don't like about ourself. Particular behaviors recognized as being unproductive or down right unhealthy don't benefit us. These are the obstacles which while on the journey interrupt our positive flow.

Let's say you have a habit that you consider time wasting. We all have them. You've most likely thought of one right away as you already know your time wasting habit. We won't call the habit bad or good. This is not necessary to the point I will be making shortly. We do know the habit brings you pleasure, but also uses time allocated for working toward a specific goal. This habit has become an obstacle in the way of your fluid state of being. In other words, the habit is now getting in the way of the achievement of your set goal. Any obstacle that interrupts the goal achievement directive or timeline prolongs success.

For example; I have the habit of leaving my desk before finishing a writing assignment. This habit developed as a way to give myself a thought break to clear my head. Thought breaks allow me to focus on the next point or idea in the upcoming segment of my writing assignment. I told myself that this exercise of leaving my desk was helpful, and allowed me to be more creative in my writing. I didn't view the habit of leaving my desk as bad or good, but it was time wasting. See, each time I would leave my desk to "clear my head" another interruption would occur in the process.

One self-inflicted interruption becomes many other unplanned interruptions. I would go from clearing my head to thinking about something completely unrelated. Many times the action of leaving my desk would lead to conversations that made me lose focus. This lost focus meant I needed more time and brain resources to get back on track with my writing goal. So while on hand it was helpful for me to leave my desk, on the other it was costing me. As it turns out not leaving my desk meant I could stay in a writing flow which allowed me to become better at my craft...

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE IN THE OCT-DEC ISSUE OF MMAP MAGAZINE.