They say if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.
Except that’s not true. Sometimes times and circumstances change.
Despite what Law of Attraction proponents suggest, you can’t control the world with your mind. Simply wishing doesn’t make anything so.
Your routine can become set in stone like a statue. That’s a problem. It’s like you’ve gazed upon Medusa, the woman with snakes for hair, and become frozen in stone. You aren’t your job. You’re more than that. But, to a certain extent, you are the result of your actions. Sometimes, you’re going to need to grow.
Bedtime is the perfect time to grow
When you’re a parent, sometimes you’ll look at your young children and see they’ve grown overnight.
Past the age of 25, however, a physical nighttime growth spurt doesn’t happen.
Nevertheless, growing at night isn’t reserved for the young. It becomes a different kind of growth, a mental or spiritual one.
When you mentally review your day or what you tend to do every day, you can see what doesn’t work. Or what might work better if you did it differently. It’s part of learning from experiences.
You can mentally explore the different connections of the things in your life. This process is called “thought experimentation.”
At some point, you’re going to want to test these ideas.
Thought experiments
These kinds of experiments can consist of anything.
Deciding whether to ride your bike to work.
Talking to people you don’t usually speak to.
Whether or not to take a nap in the afternoon.
Doing a five-minute workout every day instead of a 30-minute workout three times a week.
For any new change, there’s going to be a period of adjustment.
You might have thoughts that creep into your mind about how stupid you are for trying out your idea.
With the crazy drivers on the road, you might think you’re taking your life into your hands when you ride your bike.
When you speak to people, it might not go so well.
Whatever.
When you do the thought experiment, you’ll be able to tell if the negative result will be worth it. Do the potential gains outweight the costs?
Thought experiments are the first step in doing an actual experiment.
And actual experiments lead the way to change.
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James Cobb RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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