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Accepting the consequence of choice
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Location: Blogs Dave Amphlett's Personal Blog |
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| Posted by: Dave Amphlett |
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:36:05 GMT |
Or how learning to enjoy my fathers driving helped me succeed in exams. This was prompted by Sean Dickinsons blog: Make a decision, then make it right (http://tinyurl.com/6l5k7l). Read more...
As a young teenager
my fathers driving of his unnecessarily long red sports car scared the life out
of me. I would literally have my entire body tensed up and grip the door handle
with white knuckles.
I can't remember when it changed, but one day I just
accepted the inevitability of being a passenger in the car. I realised that
getting in the car was my choice. But once I'd made that choice and got in, I
was no longer in control. I could no longer effect change in the situation, in
fact I could probably only make it worse. If we crashed, we crashed. If I was
going to die, then I was going to die. I couldn't change that, however I could
still affect my 'experience' of the situation.
That was the day I learned
to enjoy being a passenger being driven round at brake-neck speeds in a sports
car.
That was also the day I learned to enjoy having made decisions and
watching the results unfold. I always look for opportunities to effect change,
but from an objective viewpoint. One where I can appreciate the experience of
the results of my choice. It's the best way to learn how choices work out
too.
It served me well later in life in a few ways I'll
mention:
Exams. At the point you sit down in an exam you can't
learn any more. What's in your head is in your head. The only change you can
effect at that point, is to let that accumulated learning come out as
efficiently as possible, and the best way to do that is to relax and enjoy the
experience.
Interviews. At the point you sit down in an interview,
you can't research the company any more. You can't swot up on the technicalities
any more. The only change you can effect is to be yourself, and the best way to
do that is to relax and enjoy the experience. That gives you the best chance of
finding a working environment where you can continue to be
yourself!
Screwing Up. Yes I've done plenty of this too. But I
have to say I virtually never experience the 'why did I' questions. I have
plenty of 'damn' and 'that was stupid', but I count that toward education. For
me, once I've screwed up, I've screwed up. No point moaning on about what-if's.
Much better to do everything you can to (a) make things as right as you can, and
(b) learn from the experience to reduce the chances of it happening
again.
But as Sean emphasised in his blog, this really shows how important the choice
itself is. The thoughts and actions leading up to the choice are the point of
highest leverage. Now all I've got to do is work on not over-perfecting stuff
and actually doing it rather than thinking about it, and the world is my lobster
;) |
| Copyright ©2008 Dave Amphlett |
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