The patterns the sand made as the wind blew across the beach at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland were mesmerizing yesterday and, as I look at them here, very calming too.

Pattern recognition allows you to reduce the overwhelm in your life. Instead of noticing every single detail instead you notice the patterns before you.

Pattern recognition is how I noticed the sparrow hawk in my garden with so much ease this morning.

With 180 degrees of back garden to observe noticing a small stationary bird might not be that easy. I know what my garden normally looks like, however, and so as soon as I looked out of my window I noticed the shape - an additional post sticking up from the fence that isn't usually there.

A disruption in the pattern I usually see.

It was only once I got the binoculars out that I could confirm my initial assumption that the additional and new post was in fact a sparrow hawk. (Also supported by a call to the neighbour who knows about such things.)

Patterns have been a big theme of my life - my thesis for my Business Studies degree in the mid 80s was even on statistical analysis noticing the patterns in behaviour that impacted the sales of Robinson's fruit juices.

From a coaching and change management perspective it's about noticing patterns in mindset and behaviour that accelerate growth and support your success in achieving your goals, and releasing those patterns that inhibit that growth.

Using nature as a metaphor for your life helps with the pattern recognition as you dispense and ignore the detail of the situation and instead look at the patterns.

During a Landscaping Your Life walk patterns you might notice might include:

• Tides - and the fact there's another coming along very soon
• Seeds - and the time and patience needed for them to germinate
• Seasons - everything happening in the right order (ie you can't harvest before you've sown the seeds)
• Winter - the lack of visible progress not meaning nothing is happening
• Spring - sowing more seeds than you need to ensure you have a flourishing garden/life
• Summer - allowing the efforts undertaken to bear fruit
• Autumn - the need to let go in order to flourish during the winter
• Sunrises/sunsets - new beginnings and endings
• and so on.

You'll find many more examples of patterns in nature applied to our lives over on my LYL YouTube channel.

Patterns in our language can also be mined to find different perspectives to current challenges whether those patterns represented are:

• Uphill Struggles
• Turning a corner
• Turning over a new leaf
• Talking to a brick wall

Patterns reflected in poems can also provide insight as you'll find in my paths and destinations poem.

Doing something different every day is a BRILLIANT means uncovering habitual patterns that may no longer be serving you.

Do get in touch if you'd like to explore the patterns to accelerate your team's growth or the patterns inhibiting that growth whether that's using nature as I have in this post or more logical means as I did with the Scottish Institute for Business Leaders on disrupting habitual thinking alison@alisonsmith.co

And yes I am open for (more) work.