Thursday Thoughts…. NO Safe Zone

A friend of my recently stated that “great things come from comfort zones”. That single statement caused my thought process to leap to attention and race away into the mist of the unknown. It was not a matter of disagreeing as much as it was a stimuli.  Humans have inbuilt reactive capabilities that are either autonomic (without thinking) and somatic (conscientious). Without getting into all of the mechanics of these systems it brought to mind the importance of control.  We have all heard the phrase “pick your battles” even when they are brought to your door steps and not something that you have instigated. In these cases it becomes a situation in which we must restrain our autonomic tendencies while exercising somatic behavior in some appropriate form. It’s this regulatory event that forms our fight or flight response (also referred to as ‘hyperarousal’ or ‘acute stress’) to conditions.

Aside from the skirmishes that are brought to us we are routinely involved with making proactive decisions. We make these decisions using our filter for risk and rewards. Those that favor rewards operate under an umbrella of potential risk. As I stated to my friend, my confidence based upon knowledge and experience permits me to be fearless. This should not be construed as fool hearty, otherwise you would be completely oblivious to outcome potential. It simple means that instead of an unhealthy captivation with fear that one can then view opportunities without distraction. From this perspective we are able to broad our opportunity landscape and be more alert to all conditions involved.

Let me talk for a moment about autonomic responses. In the clinical context these are those physical activities that we don’t have to think about (breathing, digesting, glandular secretion). What we can learn about these matters that are outside of our control is that we can present conditions under which they can be regulated. For example, we I served in the fire service I learned how to regulate my breathing (an autonomic function) by way of physical conditioning and mental state patterns. This disrupted the normal breathing circuit to allow for intervention.  How does this relate to our routine life?  In the normal flow of life we are presented by disruptive events in which we face that require attention. Where our invention takes place is in the way we control our response.

·        Is this a topic we wish to respond to? Are we equipped to properly respond? Is there any value in responding?  I consider all of these as physical conditioning items in which we give ourselves the privilege of controlled response vs. a reaction. The most frequently used tact is to provide space, a gap of time for consideration/contemplate. 

·        In the somatic sense it’s our response to defuse the potential risk, “let me think about it” or “I’m not equipped to respond appropriately”.  The ability to leverage or incite will depend heavily on our choice of words that is further controlled by our moral barometer involving respect, dignity and professionalism.

As stated previously, the state of risk vs. reward is ever present. A small spark can ignite an inferno. An inferno can be contained simply by how we approach extinguishing it. Again, drawing from my fire service history fire is based on what is called the fire tetrahedron. This is comprised of,

·        Fuel:     Remove and ignition will be diminished/extinguished. In the case of contention we can remove elements in which they contribute to the inferno. Name calling, opinions, hatred, extraneous other fuels are a few ways in order to contain the situation.

·        Oxygen:              Suppress access to oxygen needed to sustain a fire. Don’t add life to the argument by providing life giving contention (or if not contentious supportive encouragement to cases in which a group feeding frenzy is taking place). Avoid frivolous skirmishes.

·        Heat:    Reducing sustained burning through cooling. Take the heat off the argument by way of removing intensity, narrowing focus, reconsidering the impact from the discussion, and learning that it isn’t about winning (it’s about surviving).

·        Chemical Chair Reaction:            Disturbing the transformation of fuels during the burning process in both state (solid or liquid converted to gas for purpose of burning) and transformation .  This is most often illustrated how a small friendly educational discussion grows into a full blown heated debate. In doing so it spreads from a topic to character assignations. Moral standards and self-control come into play to avoid lasting catastrophic conditions.

Picking Our Battles

Our opinions are our enemies. Ignited by wants, desires and ambitions we use these to mount a campaign. When risk not managed through knowledge and experience, our view is only on the reward. From this we get such cliché phrases as ‘we learn from our mistakes’, which simply means that we have some possible redemption from being short sighted. Have you really learned from the mistake and yet overlooked what the causes were for making it?

We all have interests and those interest give rise to contemplation that is comprised of the essential elements of knowledge and experience. The value of both is driven by the quality, and over the course of time their quality improves with repeated use. Some would contend that freshness provides decision quality when in fact it is simply providing perspective variety. Therefore it remain essential that quality knowledge and experience serve to influence our course of action relating to picking our battles.

Don’t start fires you can’t control. In New England (USA) in rural America controlled burning of land occurs to control fire spread during the course of the year. By killing dead growth (tuff) the burning process controls destructive insect and plant incursions while providing carbon rich additions to soil content. In the context of our discussion our battles are fought from the basis of what we can control, the value it contributes and the infestations that we abate. Our battles, before they start should by having at the ready appropriate fire containment preparations (all of the points as previously mentioned for the fire tetrahedron). Secondly, our purpose should be well understood and appropriate measures taken to focus the scope of the engaged activity. Lastly, we must be purposeful in doing no further harm. As we all know, personal relationship can get lost all over a battle fought. Time may but seldom heals old wounds.

In the Constructive Sense

Battles control the spread of false doctrine and loss in humanitarian conditions. Wars are comprised of battles for gaining a winning position. It involves strategies, tactics and use of resources. In also means that adaptability, flexibility, leadership and we are willing to accept the adverse consequences in terms of loss (physical and supportive). At probably no other time is the world is the world at war with itself. People fighting people, creating battles for which the outcome only creates carnage and little if any benefit. I recently asked why I thought there was so much upheaval? It’s a hard question because there are so many precipitators (manipulation, misinformation, self-focus, seekers of fame…), but the one element that accelerates the spread is pervasive instantons communications. The world has yet to harness the need of responsible and purposeful control. It’s like having a car with 120mph speedometer and driving the vehicle with reckless abandonment.  While there is constructive uses our uncontrolled behavior, making everything a battle, has resulted in global discord. There are arguments that extend beyond your realm, but you still enter in with an opinion of no value or contextual understanding. We have arguments that are founded on lies or with a basis that is out of contextual clarity. Too many evils, not enough resolve and wildfire conditions that spread hatred.

In the constructive sense understanding the pretense of conflict helps us to clear the way that allot of what we could do, we shouldn’t do because it’s unproductive. Likelihood of providing change, the reconstructive damage it causes and the robbing of time is hardly worth the breath.  With a clean slate we are able to be more profoundly focused and less apt to be distracted. We use the power to create purposeful outcomes, and not simply rely in safety. One element that presently exists is the tenor of success which has moved from a place of routine normality to a playing field of creative/innovative opportunities (none of which exist in a safe place). It gives way to us pondering the question as to why safety doesn’t exist in the unknown. The unknown is the unknown, we can only speculate on possibilities and often those possibilities are wishful. It’s those wishful moments that purposefully overlook the other side involving adversities. From within those adversities we find a carbon rich soil that permits us to shape the journey and to enjoy the element of control.

Safe places (safe room paradigm) are in and of themselves zones where disruptive abnormalities create catastrophic conditions.  If we examine the impact of Covid-19 on the world economies those safe places are not immune from catastrophic disruptions. Enterprises that were strong and stable have been put on unstable ground, and those that were struggling have toppled (but some have even flourished because they never viewed themselves in a safe zone).

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