By Jody Eagen

Winning isn’t everything, attitude is. I think this old yarn is only partially correct. What’s missing are the opinions and beliefs that go along with the attitudes we have. It is these three components of ourselves that influences everything in our lives. Let me explain.

We all have a filter we see life through, let’s call it our Context Window. This window is made up of all our attitudes, opinions and beliefs about how the world works. We created it over time from all the experiences we had in life. Everything that comes our way is seen or heard through that filter. Since it is uniquely ours, it follows that everyone sees the world differently.

Once something comes through that filter, we make a judgement. Do we like this or not? It’s these judgements that determine if and how we will participate, i.e. our next behaviour. From our behaviour, we get every result we have in our life.

Many people want to change their behaviour to add more effectiveness or fulfillment to their life. Many read books or attend courses and retreats looking for a silver bullet. They hope that someone will tell them how to ‘do it differently’. I agree that changes in behaviour are important. But that’s not where to start the search.

If our behaviour comes from our judgement, which comes from our context, then to change what we do without first changing our context requires that we live ‘out of alignment’. This implies that the actions we take are not in tune with what we believe. To maintain this requires willpower and that can only be sustained short term. Think of a time when you started an exercise, diet or time management regiment that eventually went by the wayside.

For long-term change, we must be aware of what is in our context so that we can effect a Context Shift. We must determine the attitudes, beliefs or opinions we are holding that prevent us from taking the action necessary to create the result we want. Once the Context Shift is complete, a natural and aligned change in behaviour will occur and this new behaviour can be sustained long term.

Since most of our context is unconscious, we require external factors to assist us in discovering more about ourselves. It may involve some less than pleasant experiences with friends and loved ones to see into our context. Or, at an appropriately designed retreat, various exercises combined with personal introspective time allow people to sneak up on themselves and uncover what is in their Context Window, quickly and safely, and without the scars.

And with that new self-knowledge, we can implement long lasting change.