Dripping Water Hollows Out Stone,
Not Through Force but Through Persistence
– Ovid
In other words, small actions, done consistently over time, will have a great impact.
This advice is often given when you are wanting to make big positive changes in your life.
The same logic holds for making big negative changes.
If you are not paying attention, a seemingly inconsequential yet harmful action, done consistently, day in and day out, over time will have a great negative impact.
Take looking down at your smartphone.
Why does how you look down at your smartphone make a lick of difference?
Why should you care? Why does it matter if you look down from the bottom of your neck when you text instead of allowing your head to roll forward from the top of your neck where the joint is?
Well, it probably wouldn’t matter if you looked at your smartphone once a week. But because the technology is mobile it enables you to take it with you wherever you go. And if you are like most of the rest of us, you do just that.
So you use your smartphone consistently, not occasionally. That is what’s important here.
Because you use it consistently, that is why it matters how you look down at your smartphone.
Don’t waste time and effort trying to pay attention to how you do everything you do.
The things you do consistently are the ones that matter. Not the things you do occasionally.
When I talk to my students about using their smartphones some of them will tell me, “Oh, I don’t look at my phone very much.” I bet if you logged for one day how much time you spend on your phone, you would be very surprised. Multiply that by 7 days a week and you may be astounded. If you are truly interested in knowing, there are apps out there to help you track your phone usage.
The Alexander Technique teaches us to pay attention to ourselves.
The Alexander Technique is also very practical. It doesn’t teach us to pay attention to everything.
It teaches us to pay attention to key things that will have the most impact.
This is a perfect example of that principle. Put your effort where it counts.
Consistently matters occasionally doesn’t.
Image: Serg64/Shutterstock
