Put habits in place that make your reactions better.
Humans are habit based creatures. I often don’t have the ability to stop myself before every action I take, or before every word I say, and contemplate the perfect response. I have to trust my reactions will be the correct one, and if they aren’t, that’s on me to find out what the correct response would have been and strive for that.
The goal is to put the correct habits in place, and to trust they will provide the best reaction when quick acting moments arrive. Obviously, this is the ideal. Obviously, if I’m having this conversation, my habits in place are noticeably not where they need to be.
How do I go about changing that?
It’s simulating high action situations in a low stress environment, and practicing a better response. It’s acting to refine my reactions in an alternate way. As always, here’s a baseball example.
I struggled to square up good velocity at the beginning of my senior year. To counteract that, my dad moved up in the batting cage and threw me pitches from 20 ft away, as hard as he could throw (it sucked). That forced me to react quicker, and gave me experience in a situation I was only previously seeing in a high stakes match up. Not only was I practicing being in the situation, but I also got to experience what success in that particular difficult situation felt like.
And that gave me confidence going forward.
I was able to practice something I really struggled with in a situation where somebody could help me, and I could feel out my mistakes and draw conclusions. Off the baseball field, this is running through situations with your close friend, spouse, or a professional. Practicing interview questions beforehand, sitting down with a counselor and expressing myself in a safe environment, even talking to myself in the mirror and watching how I respond – there are so many ways.
Putting myself in situations to practice reactions is key. Making the decision to act on fine tuning reactions creates better habits and self awareness. All of which makes me a better human.
Lastly, perfection ain’t the goal. Doing better is all I got, cause I’m only human.
@thewrightfiasco 