The Butterfly Effect as it Applies to OUR Behavior

Technically, "the Butterfly Effect is a metaphor, describing the concept where there is a sensitive dependence on initial conditions of a dynamic system that may produce a large variation in the long term behavior of the system." Awesome Technical Stuff! Right? Put another way, this phrase also represents the theory that the movement of a butterflies wings, creates a tiny change in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the weather on the other side of the globe. The exact effect on the weather may also vary, depending on the angle of the movement, the speed of the movement and the direction the butterfly is moving in. So, in theory a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas. It’s all scientific theory of course, but just imagine it, for a minute.

On the other hand, these dynamic systems describe too, the infinite number relationships between people, objects and the most discrete of actions (or not), reactions (or not), behaviors (or not). Basically any behavior (or lack of), mannerism (or lack of), attitude (good or not), facial expression (or lack of), all have an impact somewhere down the line. The impact may be favorable or not favorable, depending on ALL of the details of the specific situation. Consider too, the ripple effect caused by the butterfly which led to the tornado in Texas. Think of it like the ripples that result when you toss a stone in a calm lake. The ripple starts out small and continues to grow in size, bigger and bigger until it blends in with the rest of the lake. The fact is that there ripples are continuing on such a small scale that you just can’t see them. Imagine how the ripple might look differently if you were to plunge a stick (representing a coworker) into the water, somewhere amidst the ripples. Imagine then, how it might look, if you tossed another stone (representing a mischievous coworker) in, amongst the ripples. All of these things are analogies to our behaviors and THE IMPACT OF THE IMPACTS of the behaviors.

The LIFE ALTERING REVELATION comes when we realize that we are all butterflies, in a way, and our behaviors are the flapping of the wings, which have some end result(s). The sentence we choose, the words we choose, the posture or mannerisms we take, our facial expressions or our tone of voice. All of these seemingly small things can potentially have a significant impact on someone or something, seemingly unrelated.

Being conscious of this, WISELY CHOOSE what you would like the end results to be.