What have farm produce got to do with anything? Well, you know the old saying:
“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
It is a circuitous argument – how do you have a chicken if it wasn’t born from an egg? Yet how was that egg made without an earlier chicken. And this is with out due consideration of any cockerels floating around…
The thing is, I think we can say a similar thing about our personal traits:
Do we do and think what we do and think because of our personal traits, or are our personal traits the result of what we do and think?
Let me put that in a slightly more comprehensible way. Is the neighbours kid disruptive at school because he is bored with the curriculum, or does his boredom stem from his disruptive behaviour?
So what? Well, without knowing the route cause of unwanted behaviours and traits, you don’t stand any chance of being able to improve them. Let me take another example.
Lets say you are having trouble motivating yourself at work, and as a result are getting precious little done. Have a think hard about this – are you doing very little because you have no motivation, or in fact does your lack of motivation derive from your lack of work. The solutions are very different.
If your general motivation is being depleted by the fact you are sitting around, then all you need to do is take that first step and start something – as soon as you pick up some momentum, your motivation will return.
However, if it is your motivation itself that is causing the blockage, then that is where you must put your attention. Are you finding it hard to get motivated for other things in your life, or is it just at work? If the former, then what else is going on in your life that is making you feel like this? If the latter, then is it time for a new job or a new role?
And that is the key. For each blockage you need to identify the trait and the behaviour, then decide which came first. Which is the chicken. And which is the egg.
