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Hi Thinking Mechanic-ians! Welcome back. We hope, as always, your thinking is helping you evolve and prosper in your life. If not, don't worry, that's why we are here (the mechanics to the rescue!!).
As with everything we write about we are doing so to provide a perspective. Giving you a different angle to assess and mentally observe patterns, habits, and thinking traits in your life. We do this by observing life and extracting teachings out of it that we can all apply to our lives to help us prosper and...reign...ohhh...we love that word - REIGN - meaning to be the best or most important in a particular area or domain. Reigning over your own life means getting a hold of your thinking and "training" it (see our previous post "bootcamp for your thinking") so you can become the best version of yourself.
Anyway - enough ranting - let's get to it. Today we are speaking about being a copycat. Normally said with a negative intent but on this occasion we are saying is positively - in fact - we want you to be a copycat. Let's explain.
The Chief mechanic (who is the founder of this website) ordered a long black coffee from a cafe he had never been to before. The women behind the counter who took his order had a dark complexion. The chief immediately starting to think, "I wonder where she is from...?" based on an instant assumption she may not originate from Australia (where Thinking Mechanics is based) and raking through his head trying to place her potential country of origin.. This was potentially an unsafe instant assumption to make. It turns out - it wasn't though. The waitress greeted the Chief by first saying "Allo" which threw the chief way off guard. "Wow, she's French!" he thought. This thought immediately turned into words which did a very good job at vocalising the obvious surprise..."wow..." he said..."I don't intend to sound rude but I did not think you were from France". The waitress, obviously a true professional, laughed politely and said (in a very french accent) "ah no, I am not from France..." This immediately made the Chief pause in a state of slight confusion. This was evidently quite obvious to the waitress who then immediately offered some clarity "....I was taught to speak English by my boyfriend - who is French..." For a split second the chief accepted this as an adequate answer and was just about to move on with the conversation when a mental light bulb turned on. "Hold on - you mean you are not from France, you don't speak French but you have a french accent because your French boyfriend taught you English?". "Oui" said the French...I mean, not French waitress. In my head I felt like I was suddenly in the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure with the "wohhhhhhhh" thought I had.
Slurping my long black I walked away from the cafe with a little nugget of life wisdom suddenly transplanted into my head..."we become what we copy". Think about it for a little while. Think about the astonishing truth that manifested in that waitress's life. Not only did she learn - which I suppose is a form of copying - to speak English but she also inherited the accent of her teacher. She assimilated. Assimilated is a word that is rooted back to Latin meaning "to"-"like". If we added another word in there it would add slightly more meaning which is "to"-BE-"like". The other interesting fact is that the waitress may have been completely unaware she was inheriting the accent of her teacher whilst learning a language. If she was given the choice, and asked..."would you like a French accent along with learning English?" she may have acted in a different way.
Here lays the lesson. Whether we are at a conscious or subconscious level we are all copying - or assimilating to someone. As humans we seem to have an innate need "to-be-like" others. This applies across all aspect of our human experience from the way we dress to the way we walk to the way we talk however it especially applies to how and what we THINK (read post about the importance of " what we think") . Our thinking experience in life in many cases has it roots back to the most influential people in our lives - our parents. As we mature we encounter other people from our peers, to people we read about, leaders we respect and the list goes on. They can all have the potential to influence how we act and think but arguably the bedrock of who we assimilate to the most are those who have the most influence over us - our parents.
You become what you copy. In other words - you will exhibit the traits, thoughts and behaviours of those you assimilate to. This is an innate "law' of life and is not necessary something you can control or stop. Ultimately - you can choose what you copy though. Our parents have a huge influence on us and help to shape us into the the adults we become. The process moves on to the next generation. It is essentially like one big elaborate photocopying machine. If we leave this unchecked we can over generations copy everything including habits, ways of thinking that may hinder our potential...to be the very best version of ourselves.
So, for a Thinking mechanic what does this mean?
Well it can start by asking yourself, who am I copying? What have I assimilated that helps me? What have I assimilated that may hinder me. Is there someone in your life you respect and admire that you can begin to assimilate to?
The point is, much like a photocopying machine...if you don't like what it is copying...change the original item being used. That means that you can, as an individual, assimilate to anyone. If you become what you copy - who in your life has a life that already possesses prosperity across their relationships, finances, health and spiritual well being?
Maybe it's time you become a copycat after all.