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A few weeks ago my wife asked me to change the door on our fridge so it opened the 'other' way to fit in with a rearrangement of the kitchen. We have had this fridge for about 8 years and this was the first time we had changed the way the door opened.
The task was done and it looked fine. However everytime for the next month any of us came to the fridge to open it we went to the original side. Once or twice the door almost got wrenched off the fridge by an exasperated adult. This included me and I was the one that changed it.
Even now if I am on automatic pilot in the morning I reach for the wrong side. I still have to make a conscious effort to check myself and go for the correct side.
Our behaviour is moulded into patterns by repetition. Once we have learnt which side the fridge opens we no longer have to think about it but just do so automatically while our mind focuses on other things (coffee or tea this morning; I am sure there was a beer in here last time I looked). Change the pattern however and we have to break the mould and relearn. Unless we break the mould we will revert to the old pattern.
Relearning requires the development of insight into the pattern we have adopted, finding ways to break the mould that created the pattern and then setting up new patterns of behaviour.
My children created my 'awareness trigger' for me. They stuck a magnetic label on the correct side of the fridge in my eyeline. It works (at least until some visiting child moves it!)
What are your patterns - and what are the triggers you can use to break your mould?
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