What You’ve Always Done

Inertia is a powerful force. Fight back.

One of the biggest traps we often fall into is doing what we've always done, simply because that's what we've always done.

Why? For starters, it's easy. It's the default mode. Muscle memory kicks in.

Additionally - there's a decent likelihood that you've had success in the past. That past success leads you to believe that doing the same thing will yield similar results in the future. And, frankly, that's probably not wrong.

But the problem with doing what you've always done is that you won't break new ground. You won't find better ways forward. You won't push yourself or your thinking.

I started posting these "whiteboard thoughts" in 2017. I always accompanied my post with a picture of something I had written/drawn on a whiteboard. After a while, it simply became what I always did.

In 2020, when I shifted to working from home, I didn't have a whiteboard, so I began posting thoughts jotted on plain paper. After a while, it simply became what I always did.

Today I offer you this version - created digitally instead on with a pen. Why? No particular reason - just breaking the routine of what I had always done.

So the challenge then is to guard against the "what you've always done" trap. Sometimes the best way to do this is to simply make an intentional decision to not do the same thing for no reason other than breaking the inertia.

I may be back in your feed with a pen-drawn thought next time - but it was important for me to do something new this time. Just for the sake of doing something new.

Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,

Eric