Habits of Health Weekly Meeting

The Law of Cycles
How Habits control our behavior.
Recognizing and Accepting Change

No matter how hard we try to maintain a status quo for our lives, change is inevitable. In nature there is a LAW, something that we have no ability to prevent or stop. That Law is the Law of Cycles.

The sun comes up and the sun goes down, the tide comes in and the tide goes out, as we breathe in, we must breathe out, the heart contracts and the heart expands. All of life is played out as a rhythm.

The concept is to continue our journey until we are spending the majority of our time above the line. (Example number three)

Things go up and then come down. Things get better and then they deteriorate and get worse before they get better again. We spend some of our time on mountain tops, exhilarated, enjoying the view and the next thing we know, we are down in the valley.

If things weren’t cyclic, we would never be able to determine whether one thing was better than another. There would be no reference point with which to judge good from bad.

For change to take place, we must first acknowledge that we require a change and that the change would benefit us in some way or another.

I recommend that everyone adopt something called the Slight Edge Philosophy. The Slight Edge Philosophy is one of incrementalism. It says that we are practicing either “Simple Disciplines” or “Slight Errors in Judgement.” Slight Edge can be looked at as a cycle because no matter how hard we try; we will continue to cycle between the two.

Putting the process of Slight Edge to work for us. When we practice Simple Disciplines, it will lead us towards well-being. If and when we make a Slight Error in Judgment, as soon as we recognize and acknowledge that error, we can then apply a correction and continue our journey, using a new Simple Discipline.

Success can be looked at as nothing more than a cycle of failure and achievement. Failure can lead to an understanding; an understanding can move us towards a correction.

Earl Nightingale coined a definition of success that can make everyone a success if they decide to accept it as a law in their lives.

That definition being: Success is a “Progressive Realization of a Worthy Idea”.

I recommend you memorize this definition, and have it locked into your mind as a core belief and a constant reminder of how good you are!

PROGRESSIVE – continually moving, more forward than backward

REALIZATION – becoming consciously aware

of a

WORTHY – something that you consider to be valuable

IDEAL – beyond the ordinary – redeeming quality – contributes to whatever it is connected to

Progress, not perfection, is an answer or maybe THE answer!

Remember that LIFE is a journey and not a destination!

If something is not working in your life, you have only two choices.
1. Accept the situation
2. Become willing to make a change.

For assistance in making your choice, use the Serenity Prayer.

1. For change to take place, we must first open our mind and identify the thing that is holding us back from progressing towards your goal (Mindfulness). Pay attention to what is going on and evaluate and determine if your life is moving in a positive or negative direction.

2. The second step is to apply that new information by acknowledging that change must occur, then take action and do the thing you know would improve your life.

3. The third thing to do is review how it turned out. Did it work out the way you expected? If so, continue to do it. If not, then take steps of correction. Modify the way you thought or the action you took. Just don’t quit and go back to the old way of doing things.

4. Repeat the process with the correction incorporated.
Learn, Do, Review, and then repeat with correction in mind.

May you be blessed with discernment!
May you be blessed with the willingness to change those things you can!

Together (by observing cycles) i Can

 

Join us to discuss these topics!

For more information read our other articles or contact us today!

Michael McCright
Free Health Coaching – provided by the "Together i Can Group"
Together i Can Inc.
July 2022

Call 619-316-6900