Actually CHallenge The Status Quo

There are a great many quotes on it:
“If you always do what you’ve done, you’ll always get what you’ve got.”

I see people wear shirts with these words. And I hear a lot of people talk about challenging the status quo. But I don’t see very many people operate in a tangibly different way from one day to the next, one week to the next, one month, one year.

In fact, with most people, if you learn what they did in each season, on each holiday or vacation or weekend or sick week last year, during an injury or life challenge, you can create a predictive model for this and every following year. For some people, it's predictable to the day or even the hour. I've had clients with seasonal professions whose behavioral is so predictable from one year to the next that you wonder if anyone is at the helm.

So here’s a little homework assignment:
1.) pick a period of time where you are outrageously predictable 
2.) do the opposite

That’s it. Simple. Try it a few times. Soon you’ll find that the various equivocating narratives you’ve been telling yourself and others evaporate. A peer of mine once noted his propensity to turn every weekend and holiday into a "cheat day" with eating. It's interesting that once someone evaluates "special day" he or she usually finds that there are almost more "special days" in the year than "regular days." So, for this peer of mine, he BEGAN a hard diet on July 4th. His family always does a big barbecue party with lots of adult beverages for the surrounding days or weekend of July 4th. He still partook in the visit. But he volitionally challenged his personal habitual behavior and brought his own prepared meals for the holiday. It set the tone for the next 4 months, during which he achieved trace body fat percentage for the first time in his life.

We may think we're real rebels or highly independent people. But there are so many automated switches and behaviors inside of everyone. It's not realistic to talk about changing outcomes without an overt plan to do the opposite of one's normal thinking, living, acting. Find these patterns. Acknowledge them. Alter them.

Actually challenge the status quo.