Vision

I believe that there is one characteristic that differentiates homo sapiens from all other life species and that attribute is the capacity for vision. All other living creature's behaviors are dominated by their conditioning, their history, their past. Human beings have the additional option of visualizing a future that is yet to be and they can utilize it to determine how they will act.

A rat consistently reinforced for turning left at a choice point in a maze becomes conditioned to always turn left at that choice. A human being confronted with the same choice point can chose to turn right regardless of prior conditioning. We have the choice of repeating the past or innovating change in ourselves based upon where we wish to go rather than where we have been.

Vision provides us with direction. It allows us to gauge our progress and examine the effectiveness of our behaviors. If you know where you want to go you can begin to develop strategies to get there. When I counsel others invariably my first question is "What is your vision of how you would like your life to be?" Beginning with the end in mind allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of our choices in getting us there.

Conditioned behavior takes place at a level that generally is outside of our consciousness. I often recall the story of a friend of mine who found himself driving into his office parking lot to discover that his child was in the back seat because he was to have dropped him off at day care.
He mindlessly drove his usual route since he was conditioned by many repetitions to drive to work each morning. On this day he had a new destination but he did not keep his end in mind and so he repeated his old behaviors. Being mindful is the key.

How often have you experienced people coming from virtually identical backgrounds behaving in very different ways from one another. Consider a family of origin in which there is alcoholism and abuse. Too often such dysfunction appears to perpetuate itself but there are certainly instances of offspring who have created lives of sober living and family nurturance.

Breaking the tyranny of our past involves three components : 1) Developing a vision, 2) Evaluating the effectiveness of our behaviors in terms of moving us closer or further away from that vision and 3) Mindfulness of both our vision and behaviors.
It is these elements that make recovery, achievement and the shaping of our future, possible.

Howard F. Bracco, Ph.D.