I look out my window and see trees blowing with the wind. In the house, I cannot feel the wind. Past experience with windy days gives me this understanding. I am a beginning fly fisherman. I decide to practice fly casting to understand the challenge of casting in the wind. When I move from my comfortable chair in my air-conditioned house to the driveway for my practice, the environment changes. I feel the warm day and the wind’s effect. A feeling I did not have a moment ago. I try a few casts with the breeze. The line flows out just as I want it to do. I turn and cast into the breeze. When I do not bring the rod tip down, adjust it to the situation, the line falls in a clump ten feet away from my target. I learn how to adjust to environmental changes (the wind) by experiencing it.
Again, a simple story explains patterns. I have a goal to learn fly casting. The cast is a known process that requires learning and practice. As long as my rod hangs on the wall, I am brilliant at it - in my mind. Only when I make a decision to enter the environment with the thing in my hand, adjust to the situation, do I find, a specific solution.
Using the EFDRE model, we can explain any story. Event – I see the wind outside from my chair. Feeling- I want to learn fly casting in the wind. The feeling is sufficient to capture my attention and want, to move me. Decision – I will practice in the driveway with the wind. Responsibility – I get out of my chair get my rod, string it up, and cast, first, with the wind then against it. Elimination – I return to my chair after learning what adjustments I have to make to be successful. The feeling is gone. I learned what I wanted to learn about casting in the wind. I solved a problem and began learning a new skill which will demand further practice. The thought comes “I could go fishing down at the dam”. The urge takes my attention momentarily. Then, I let it go, not enough arousal to get into the car with the gear. I am still in my chair writing this blog.
The pattern I am learning is how to cast a fly in the wind, an extension of my new pattern for fly casting. I will go and practice again when I finish writing. Remember any pattern you choose to learn, healthy or unhealthy, follows the same process. Then you practice to establish the muscle memory, adjustment to shifting environments, and find relationship support and boundaries that ensures repeated success.
