On Error Goto....

A (very) long time ago, when I was a junior computer programmer, the code we used to write had an ‘On Error Goto’ subroutine, which was a catch-all when something unexpected went wrong - if we hadn’t thought through and planned for a situation, the default error routine would kick in.

And in some ways I think we are like that poorly written code - we build habits and rules for ourselves, but when something unexpected happens, our new habits can’t cope, and our default behaviours, good or bad, kick in.

It can take a VERY long time to reprogram those default behaviours - some have been with us for decades and are deeply embedded - but what we can do is build, strengthen and refine our new habits so that they cope better when the difficult situations arise, preventing our old default behaviours from kicking-in at all…