[Ads-l] Modern Proverb: If you always do what you've always done, you always get what you've always gotten

[Neal Whitman]

In a sales setting (which increases the likelihood of someone quoting Ziglar), someone in the early 1990s told it to me in rhyming form, at least for those with the cot/caught merger:

If you keep on thinking what you thought,
You'll keep on getting what you got.

Neal


> On Apr 26, 2016, at 12:48 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I received two requests to examine the saying in the subject line. The
> Dictionary of Modern Proverbs has an entry on the topic with a first
> citation in 1985.
> 
> The earliest instance I've located appeared in "The Milwaukee
> Sentinel" of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1981. The speaker was an educator
> and counselor on family relationships and human sexuality named Jessie
> Potter who worked for a non-profit organization she founded:
> 
> [ref] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Sentinel, Search For Quality
> Called Key To Life by Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Column 5, Milwaukee,
> Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)[/ref]
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> "If you always do what you've always done, you always get what you've
> always gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured
> speaker at Friday's opening of the seventh annual Woman to Woman
> conference.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Yesterday, I posted a Quote Investigator entry here:
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/25/get/
> 
> The Quote Verifier does not have an entry for the saying, but I just
> found out that Keyes does discuss it under the fake Einstein quotation
> about insanity. Keyes says:
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Comedienne Jackie "Moms" Mabley (1897-1975) was famous for a variation
> on this theme attributed to her: "If you always do what you always
> did, you will always get what you always got." Some version of those
> words has been attributed to others as well, including Yogi Berra,
> Dale Carnegie, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, and cookie maker Wally
> Amos.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> There is a snippet match in Google Books with a GB date of 1981 that
> probably falls in the range 1981 to 1983. Jessie Potter is credited
> again. I omitted the cite because I haven't verified it with
> paper/scans.
> 
> Year: 1981 to 1983
> Periodical: The Journal of Physical Education and Program
> Volumes: 79 and 80
> Publisher: Physical Education and Program Sections of the Association
> of Professional Directors of YMCAs, Columbus, Ohio. (Data from
> Worldcat)
> Quote Page B-10
> Database: Google Books (Snippet data may be inaccurate; snippets
> suggest that the volume contains at least "Spring 1981" and "Winter
> 1982"; HathiTrust suggests that volumes 79-80 span 1981-1983)
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Another useful directive came from Jessie Potter, director, DHS, who
> noted: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get
> what you've always gotten.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org