I heard this quote over the weekend at a hammered dulcimer workshop: “Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but it does make permanent.”  Evidently Warren Buffett obtained this piece of wisdom from a golf pro, the point of which is that if you do the same thing over and over again, you will obtain the same results.

As an astrological counselor and guide I often have clients who want to know when their lives will get better.  Usually I can point to a particular planetary cycle that is activating a challenging place in their birthchart, and I can tell them that on such and such a date that cycle will ease up and they will start to feel better.  But sometimes, especially after a long slog of Saturn or Pluto cycles, habits of negativity and fear start to build up and it takes more than the movement of those planets off the natal chart to provide release.  It takes a complete change of perspective, and a new course of action. 

If a musician practices a tune over and over, but practices it incorrectly, the mistakes will become habit and a part of his repertoire.  Tony Robbins used to say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  Whether you play the piano, or golf, or tennis, or practice yoga, bad habits can lead to injury and a failure to accomplish the goal of the practice session.

If we want to change our lives, we have to shift our course and do things differently. Holding a vision is crucial to making this change, but the actions that we take must reflect that vision if change is to occur.