People operate like holograms. Holograms are three-dimensional pictures made by using lasers and a special kind of film. You can cut the holographic film into tiny pieces and reproduce the entire image from each piece. Each piece contains the whole. Scientists have observed the same principle at work in biology, physics, sociology, politics, and management. Biologists know that the chromosomes in each cell are the blueprints for that whole organism. Careful study of any one cell can show a plan for the entire body. Pollsters can survey a few people and infer how millions of people feel about an issue. You can also find examples in individual human behavior. A student who skips one assignment in English Literature is more likely to skip another. If he hasn't prepared for any of the last three classes, he is unlikely to be prepared for the final exams. The way that someone reacts in a traffic jam might tell how she handles stress in general. If a man is attentive and thorough in washing the dinner dishes, he is probably detail-oriented at work. All this leads to the main point of this Power Process: When you carefully observe one part of your life, you gain insight into the way you conduct other parts of your life. And if you change your behavior in one small area, your behavior might change in several other areas. Changing a small behavior is similar to the principle of a "trim tab." A trim tab is a small rudder at the end of a large rudder on a plane or ship. Air pressure or water pressure can exert tremendous pressure on the large rudder, making it difficult to move. That's where the trim tab comes in. This small rudder is easier to move. Because of its location and leverage, it turns the larger rudder just as the larger rudder turns the ship or plane. This is what can happen when we make small changes in our behavior. For example, a student uses a note-taking technique from this book in biology class on Monday. This student is more likely to use the same technique in history class on Tuesday. And that note-taking technique is supports a reading technique he uses Tuesday night, which is related to a time management technique she uses Wednesday to get a head start on her political science paper. Within a few weeks, one act-using a note-taking technique during one biology class-can shift the course of her career as a student. This example is not an exaggeration. If anything, it understates the power of seeing our natural tendency to live in patterns, to act out of habit. When we see our patterns, we can use small actions to make big changes. The key is being able to look at the details and see the patterns. You can use the Discovery Statements in Becoming a Master Student to do that. Look beyond the specific technique you are writing about and see your whole life reflected in your response to an exercise or suggestion. Discover what that small insight tells you about how you live the rest of your life. An objective look at one item from your personal catalog of behavior is like putting your eye to a keyhole. Suddenly a whole new room appears, and what you see is you. When you discover a behavior you don't like, you can rearrange the whole pattern by changing one small part of your life. If you have a habit of being late for class, and if you want to change that process, then be one time to one class. As soon as you change the old pattern by getting ready and going on time to one class, you'll likely find yourself arriving at all of your classes on time. You might even start arriving everywhere else on time. The joy of this process is watching one small change ripple throughout your whole life. If you know that you are usually nervous, you don't have to change how you react in all situations at all times. Just change your nervous behavior in one setting. Like magic, watch the rest of your nervousness lessen or even disappear. By looking closely at the little things you do, you discover yourself. Modify one or two little things and watch your whole life change.