I am often reminded of how inspiring I find Wayne Gretzky, legendary Canadian ice-hockey player. In one of his many interviews he was asked what made him such a good player, what put him ahead of the other players.
He explained that so many players go where the puck is, while he went where the puck was about to go. He had the ability to read the other players’ patterns, to understand what would happen next. You could say that he was good at observing and noticing patterns and to use that information to direct himself to where the puck was heading (and be the first one there!).
Everything in life is a pattern. Nature has patterns. Weather and seasons have patterns. Human beings have habitual patterns, in their thoughts, their feelings and their actions.
The better we can become at noticing patterns, the better results we can get – in all aspects of our lives. Better communication, better relationships, better sports results, better leadership, better parenting – well, you see what I mean – in every aspect of our lives!
If we can become aware of our own patterns, we can change them. If our patterns don’t take us to where we want to be, we can change them. To get better results.
We all get stuck at times, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Laughable:-)
Of course we need to do things differently to get different results. Habits and patterns aren’t always easy to break, but if we can just become aware of them, then we are well on they way to change. And we can start creating a new pattern, one day at a time.
If we can become aware of other people’s habits, we can start to predict some of what’s coming up, so we can approach situations in the best possible way.
A bit like Bill Murray i “Groundhog Day”, who gets the chance to do the same thing over and over again and thereby learn the patterns of what’s about to happen, and be able to change his actions and get better results.
Let’s go where the puck is heading. If it worked for Wayne Gretzky I’m sure it will work for us!