Sherlock Holmes’ Secret Principle

I finally got to sleep last night around 3am.

The alarm buzzed at 6am, because at 7am I had an online meeting with a potential partner. I had never heard of this guy until a month ago, and now he was interested to work with me.

I did something I usually don’t do – I offered to talk for free. Mistake.

I haul myself (reluctantly) out of bed: shower, shave, make the tea, sit down to boot up the computer when my phone pings at me…

He cancelled on me. 9 minutes before we’re due to talk.

I’m awake, shaved, dressed and sipping a caffeine-charged cup of strong tea. No hope of getting back to sleep. I now have a 7 hour teaching day ahead of me, but one that doesn’t start for another 3 hours.

My first question is – how predictive is this of his future behaviour?

Teachers of Alexander's discovery are behavioural detectives.

Here the principle to apply is: As above, so below.

FM - our favourite behavioural detective – discovered this principle early in his investigation. What he did when he recited, so he did while he spoke.

As above, so below.

What you do in the big things, so you do in the small things.

The universality of his behaviour was a profound insight that continued to nourish FM's investigation. He realized things like:

“It gradually dawned upon me that the wrong way I was using myself when I thought I was “taking hold of the floor with my feet” was the same wrong way I was using myself when in reciting I pulled my head back, depressed my larynx, etc., and that this wrong way of using myself constituted a combined wrong use of the whole of my physical-mental mechanisms.”

Reverse this principle and I have my answer: As below, so above.

How people behave around small promises is a reliable predictor of how they will behave around critical promises. Sherlock Holmes was the master of reading a small tick of behaviour to confirm his wider suspicions.

Which makes today’s cancellation worthwhile and fulfilling for me!