Your Inner Workshop

On The Wings Of A Butterfly

Do we have the creative ability to affect our individual experiences and also have an impact on our world over time, through the decisions that we make in our daily lives that may often seem to be small, insignificant and without any real power to influence the world at large?

The Butterfly Effect is a well-known analogy originally used by the mathematician and meteorologist, Edward Lorenz (1917 -2008). Lorenz was a staff member of the meteorology department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) during the 1950’s and was searching for a method that could accurately predict weather patterns. He succeeded in creating a simple computer program that indeed replicated the weather, once his mathematical formulas were used to enter the necessary initial conditions. One day while he was in a hurry to re-print the results of a weather simulation he had previously run, he decided to enter the determining initial conditions by rounding off digits as follows: .506127 was entered as .506.

When Lorenz ran the second report, he was shocked to find that the results were completely different to the original one. It became clear to him that very minor changes or variances in initial conditions would affect the weather dramatically and it also meant that the precise conditions in wind, temperature and other conditions all around the world, at the same point in time, were necessary to enable accurate predictions. Even a small discrepancy could result in chaotic and unpredictable weather. To help people understand this discovery, Lorenz began to use the butterfly analogy. At a meeting of the American Association of Advancement of Science In 1972, he titled his lecture with the question, “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil, set off a tornado in Texas?” The flapping wings of a butterfly create the small changes in atmospheric pressure which could have huge implications in complex systems, like the weather.

Our decisions are our “initial conditions” and the “weather” it changes, are our experiences. A small decision to be kind toward another person, instead of being unkind, invites that person to come in closer to you and this changes your personal experience. A small decision to be unkind toward another, or to act in anger, pushes another away and changes your personal experience.

In the story of the young student, Chris McCandless (see “A Breath of Fresh Air”, www.breathoffreshairbook.com), Chris’s decision to cut ties with his family instead of his decision to forgive, changed his personal experience. This decision took him on a journey that ultimately led to his death. His decision to ignore the advice of “helpers”, who were the strangers he met along the way, changed his experience. His decision to travel alone through the wilderness of Alaska, without the help of a map, changed his experience. If Chris decided to travel with a map, he would have seen that there was a tramway crossing over the river, only a few miles away from where he was. He could have crossed back over it and found his way out of the wilderness. The map would have shown the ranger station packed with supplies, which he desperately needed when he became ill and had nothing to eat. One unwise decision can change everything. Seemingly small decisions can result in fatal outcomes, as was the case for Chris McCandless.

The decision to judge, not to forgive, to be angry, to be jealous are accompanied by negative emotions. These “initial conditions”, which are your decisions to act in anger, to judge another, to be jealous of someone or something, are all forms of resistance and they will affect your experiences. When you resist what is, the resistance makes you feel uncomfortable or it ignites a negative feeling within you and even if you choose not to express your resistance, others will feel it, and you will push them away. This has created a negative consequence for you and affects your experience. If however you choose simply to observe instead of judge, this minor variance will change your experience.

Judging a situation or another person often ignites a painful emotion (anger, frustration, superiority), but observation does not. When we judge, we presume that we know the truth of what we are judging and where human behaviour is concerned, we will often confuse someone’s behaviour, with who they really are. People are conditioned through upbringing, tradition and culture to think and behave in certain ways and if we pronounce judgement on them, we are confusing the conditioning with who they really are. Observing a situation without judging it is merely noticing it and seeing clearly with wisdom what you can learn from it, without it having an effect on you. This changes your experience. The situation may be offering you an opportunity to challenge your black and white view of things and to heal parts of your personality that want to judge.

The initial conditions in which a business establishes itself (for example, the current economic climate) or early decisions made by a start-up business (for example, the price of a product) are so vital, that they can determine its future success or failure. It is well known that the first few months or years of a business, is the period when the rates of potential failure are highest. During this time the business is forming its brand identity and establishing its market. Small decisions during this time that turn out to be mistakes or alternatively lead to successes, have the potential to be the flap of a butterfly’s wing that creates a storm.

Is it safe to say that it is the small things that count? Perhaps we are not as powerless as we think we are,if we can become aware that the small decisions we make in our daily lives are continually creating new consequences for us. Awareness allows us to notice what our decisions create and then we gain the power to choose more wisely.