Curious about Patterns: How Do They Influence Our Thoughts, Businesses and Creativity?

“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.” - Stephen Covey

“Your brain has an in-built mechanism for finding patterns you've programmed because of where you've put your attention. Solutions, innovations, and success come not from greater intelligence or creativity but from what we notice because of where we point those attributes.” - David Allen

Some of my readers have asked me how I choose my different themes: for my articles, my blogs and my e-newsletters.

As you have probably guessed by now, I love words and am a voracious reader. I have to be careful not to stay subscribed to too many e-newsletters - even when they are excellent - or order too many books and magazines, or join too many discussion groups. Why? Because I will read them all and then have no or little time for my regular work. So, what does this have to do with my choice of themes?

Well, I still do read many of the words that are included in the e-newsletters I receive, the books and magazines that are positioned at reading stations around my apartment, and the threads written about in the discussion groups to which I clock in daily.

Usually, what I notice is that one or a couple of words start showing up across the board during the same time period - ah, synchronicity. Moreover, this word - “patterns” this past week - tends to be discussed and takes on new meanings and importance that I hadn’t noticed or thought about previously.

I finally decided on using “patterns” after reading Val Kilmer’s essay in ETR (Early to Rise) when he wrote, “One could argue - as I have in past ETR essays - that the human intellect is specifically designed to recognize and respond to patterns that are too subtle and complex to be understood logically. . . The interesting thing about a fractal universe is the possibility that all patterns are related. If this is so, you should be just as able to recognize the patterns of success by studying football or art history as by studying geopolitics or global economics.”

There are those who would argue, with good reason, that we all develop patterns for thinking, working, living, and creating. If we study nature, we find the repetition of similar patterns throughout. We develop patterns of speech, music, habits and reactions. I can’t imagine living without certain consistent patterns - can you?

And, yes, I found many wonderful and thought provoking quotations. Here are a few:

• “Our whole evolution up to this point shows that human groups spontaneously evolve patterns of behavior, as well as patterns of training people for that behavior, which tend on balance to lead people to create rather than destroy. Humans are, on net balance, builders rather than destroyers.” - Julian Simon
• “But it is strange how many rational beings believe the ultimate truths of the universe to be reducible to patterns on a blackboard.” - Frederick Pollock
• “The way is long if one follows precepts, but short... if one follows patterns.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• “What we call chaos is just patterns we haven't recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher. What we can't understand we call nonsense. What we can't read we call gibberish. There is no free will. There are no variables. There is only the inevitable.” - Chuck Palahniuk

I ask you. How do you feel about “patterns?” Have you developed your own that tend to control your thoughts, business and creativity? Or, do you feel that “patterns” are random and just depend upon the moment?

I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Don’t be hesitant or shy!