I’m referring here to knee-jerk reactions, and in particular reactions in response to crisis.

As an Access consultant, I am currently experiencing a famine cycle of the feast-or-famine evil beast. It is a beast I’ve wanted to get away from and have tried different things throughout my career without success to move to a different pattern, but so far, it has not materialized.

I think one key for me here is to avoid knee-jerk reactions and spend time to reflect on what I’m doing and why the famine of dollars is occurring once again. One early knee-jerk reaction I had at the beginning of my career was: WORK MORE HOURS! Take as many hours as possible and do nothing else in my life but work until I am back on track.

The pitfall for me when I did this was that I would burn myself out and the more I worked, the less productive I would become because I would be haggard and worn out.

Part of reflection means I want to understand where I’m at. I also need to remember where I’ve set my goals in the past. What kind of life do I want to be living in my future? And then in this reflection I need to think about small steps I can take to go in that direction. There is no quick fix, but there is always a fix. If my behavior tends to lead in the direction I want to go then that is good. Reflection helps me see where my behaviors are actually taking me.

Making habits of having behaviors that move me in the right direction gets me back on track. Watching and listening to others whom I observe are at the place I want to be helps me to develop these habits. Prayer is key for me as well and a deep seated belief that I have a God who will help me when I ask to find these habits as well as the end goals for my life. This also helps my stability and prevents those knee-jerk reactions.

May you take some time to reflect on your journey too this week.