In the LMI concepts presentation that kicks off every LMI program & workshop, we talk about how success comes from the results you get and results from behaviour. If we stop there, however, and only concentrate on changing behaviour, the effects of what we do will be only short-lived. That’s because what we do is shaped by our attitudes, our attitudes by conditioning, and conditioning is the result of exposure to small amounts of information or small activities repeatedly over time.
I’ve just started using a new email program and was very excited to discover that there is a whole list of keyboard shortcuts that will execute certain functions instead of clicking with the mouse. I love this kind of stuff! Enthusiastically I set about learning some of these shortcuts, but kept forgetting what they were. Only one way to get these commands learnt and into my subconscious so that they actually start saving me time – spaced repetition!
Now I sit with the shortcuts list window open continually, and refer to it everytime I need to perform a function, and hey presto, some of them are starting to go in and become habit.
Whatever new skill you learn, or new attitude you wish to develop, you have to go through that early painful repetition process until it becomes natural. Only then do you begin to reap the benefits of the investment you made initially to aquire that new knowledge or skill.
Nick Howes 