MOBILE, Ala. -

When we talk about human nature, we’re talking about conditions that are basic to all of us. So what we’re really talking about is a tremendous natural resource that can be studied and used to further our own purpose.

Once you have a basic understanding of the debtor you are hunting, the task becomes not only more exciting and rewarding, but in many ways a little easier. No matter where a person comes from or his background, some basic truths are fundamental to all of us.

There are three known traits inherent in all of us that can be studied and used to assist in locating our skips.

Although there are other universal traits, I want to cover the following three:

—Creatures of Habit: We are all creatures of habit. Statistics prove that when placed in the same situation, we will all react in the same way. We establish our comfort zone, and then we seldom deviate from our known paths.

Science will tell you that we gravitate to the paths with the least sense of risk. The same mental conditioning that causes a person to avoid risk causes a person to operate within known boundaries, lulling the individual with a sense of security.

We drive the same way to work each day, watch the same TV shows, eat the same foods and shop at the same stores. Even someone who is on the run will inevitably begin to settle into a routine or pattern at their new location, and this new pattern will predictably mimic patterns of old.

We as humans are drawn to return to our own comfort zones.

—Social Creatures: If the era of social networking has taught us anything, it has certainly proved that we all like to socialize.

Facebook has more than 800 million users and runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. No matter a person’s age or their walk of life, everyone has some kind of social networking site that they visit at least once a week.

—Curiosity: Curiosity is a need, a hunger, a thirst or desire to know something.

Lengthy discussions could be held on the motivational aspect — is it primitive instinct, something inborn or is it something fostered and learned? There’s no question that man has been curious since the dawn of time.

Someone way back then had to feel the need to touch a flame and thereby realize that it could serve a purpose. Regardless of the origin of curiosity, it’s comical how we are all unable to resist the drive to answer a ringing phone or open an email from an unknown party.

This curiosity is also what sparks the great God-given gift of imagination. As humans, first we think the thought, which gives birth to the idea. Then we set out on the path to make it a reality.

Alex Price is currently national sales and training manager with MasterFiles and has been a trainer to the American Recovery Association and former advisory board member to Time Finance Adjusters and the Society of Certified Recovery Agents. He can be reached at (251) 366-6779 or alex.price@masterfiles.com.