The Butterfly Effect and Planning

The Butterfly Effect is simply the understanding that small changes can have a dramatic effect over time.

Let us examine a few examples. What would have happened if the bullet from Lee Harvey Oswald's gun was half an inch off-target and missed John F. Kennedy in stead of killing him? What would have happened if Mark David Chapman's bullet missed John Lennon? What would have happened if the Gunpowder Plot had been stopped? How would the world be different if the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 was stopped?

Although these are significant events from history, the same principle applies to each of our lives?

What would have happened if you sat next to someone different in school and made a different best friend? What would have happened if you were ten minutes late for your job interview and did not get your current job? There are countless questions like this for each and every one of us.

One of the greatest lessons that the Butterfly Effect can teach us is that there are too many small and subtle changes that can happen and alter our lives to allow us to make solid plans for the future.

This is one of the reasons why meteorologists cannot predict the weather more than seven days ahead, because there are so many different factors can affect the weather in the next few days.

We live in a society in which speculating, planning and worrying about the future has become second-nature. One of the key characteristics of successful people is that they have the understanding that the future can be affected by many variables and, as a result, they will never be able clearly define it. They simply have an attitude that allows them to adapt their thoughts, behavior and strategy as the future unfolds before them.

As we begin the week, make a commitment to live flexibly and with the understanding that small and subtle changes that have occurred in the past might gather the momentum to have a significant affect on the events of this week.

Similarly, also commit to realizing that you have the ability to set in to action something that might seem small now, but in a week, a month or a year, might have a significant effect on your life.