If you said "past behavior," you've hit the nail on the head.
Sure, people can surprise us by radically deviating from prior behavior, but this tends to be the exception rather than the rule.
For example, if your friend routinely exhibits a noticeable aversion toward silly comedies, chances are he will continue to loathe such movies.
If your sister displays an acute dislike of seafood, she's bound to avoid lobster, crab, and all manner of sea creatures for the foreseeable future.
When it's hard to decode a person's true intentions, you have only two tools you can leverage: your gut and, you guessed it, the person's track record.
If you lure someone away from a competing firm to come work for you, rest assured they can be coaxed into bolting from yours.
If someone cheats on their spouse with you, who's to say they won't cheat on you with someone else later on?
We all know at least one individual with drinking or drug problems who's fallen off the wagon on one or more occasions.
And maybe we've been guilty of breaking many a diet.
While heaping gifts or compliments on someone in order to induce the behavior you'd like to see may seem like the best option, positive reinforcement of this kind doesn't always produce results.
As the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
The most impactful way for someone to break patterns of behavior is by having them experience loss firsthand.
Just because someone is cheating on their spouse doesn't necessarily mean they don't care about them.
However, the likelihood of their feeling any remorse for their actions is low until they're faced with the prospect of seeing their partner (and possibly the kids) walk out of their life. Even then, they still might not display the slightest contrition.
After all, if they can get away with scoring some action on the side, why wouldn't they?
You've probably heard the saying "You are what you eat." I would argue that although our experiences and the lessons we absorb along way can change our thinking and shape our worldview, there are certain habits -- whether genetic or learned, good or bad -- that stay with us over the long haul.
That being said, for many people, you are what you were yesterday, last month, or even last year -- which could mean a perpetual cheater an abusive drunk, or a lazy couch potato.
Always pay the most heed to a person's actions. Ask yourself how they behaved in similar situations in the past and assume that the odds are good they'll do the same in the present.
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