Rescripting

This is another post inspired by the book I'm currently reading, The Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective People. Spoiler alert, the second habit in this book is "begin with the end in mind", although what I want to talk about doesn't directly fall under that umbrella.

What I'm writing about tonight is what Covey calls rescripting, which doesn't really tell you much. A huge part of what this book tries to impress on its readers is the presence and impact of paradigms and paradigm shifts.

Paradigm: a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made, or thought about

Relate that to a theory or group of ideas on your life and how you have been living it. Everyone has their own idea about how life should be lived and how they will live their own lives. A lot of times people know how they should live their lives, but they choose to live them other ways for a variety of reasons. I also see people who really never think about they live their life, they kind of just do it. They have no end goals in mind, so there's really no reason for them to gather a plan to try and get there. They just do whatever they feel like in the moment and don't consider its implications on the future. If you're one of those people, then this post probably won't do much for you.

What we're talking about is rescripting our theories and views our lives and how we should be living them. It requires a ton of self awareness, which is not an easy thing to have at times. Not a lot of people can say that they have the ability to consistently take a step back from themselves and look at their actions, thoughts, and responses and evaluate them fairly. When was the last time you looked back at something you did and realized that it was the incorrect response, and that you would have been much better served reacting a different way. When was the last time you looked a life value or view in general and evaluated it objectively? We don't do that very often, do we? We get so hung up in the constant motion of life and the ever ticking clock to ever really even consider the possibility of evaluating ourselves.

It's not that we think that we're good enough or that we can't improve, it's that our minds never travel to the place where we even think about those types of things. I'm speaking to myself more than anyone here. Self evaluation is uncommon, and just another huge tool that we don't take advantage of.

Can you imagine a person that was constantly evaluating his actions, responses, values, opinions, and beliefs? Can you imagine a person that did that and always knew how to change them for the better? How much more effective would that person be? That person would constantly be getting better and more successful in every way. Can you argue that? I don't think you can.

So why don't we try it? Why don't we have that presence of mind to evaluate our presence of mind? It's weird isn't it? Have you ever thought about yourself like this? I don't think I have, and I think I can improve a ton in all facets of life if I utilized this ability better.

Humans are remarkable creatures. God gave us the ability to think and reason so we can become extraordinary beings, but we consistently choose to leave the ability on the shelf so we can continue to live mediocre lives.