Following your instinct is good advice. That is what we are told often. Specially when we encounter tough situations. Most leaders, executives, and successful people believe it's their judgment and instinct that has helped them become successful. They think that is what differentiates them from the masses. True, but only to some extent. In fact, it is deceptive at best. When we need them the most instincts often fail us. Instincts honed by training and deliberate self awareness can be good but not without - in order to be a reliable guiding force.
What differentiates us as humans is our ability to go against nature. Following your instincts can be a very bad and a even a dangerous one in many situations. Our instincts often tell just the wrong thing. Yesterday, in my second day at the Scuba Diving Training program, we went in water. It was a great experience. Everything we did was against instincts. And there were many situations where the instinct was so powerful that many just could not handle. Like breathing under water without putting the regulator in the mouth… from just a stream of air focused on your mouth. Every cell of your body is resisting. But this was not the worst. Where I failed is very interesting to note. At one point we were supposed to go 12 feet under and stay there. As we descended the pressure on the ear increased. Up until that time I did not know what one feet of water can do to our lungs and ears. At certain depths one can rupture the lungs if one moves just one foot while holding our breath. Strange thing is that you will not know that until the last minute because there are no nerves in your lungs. But your ears is another story. At one point, I could not equalize the pressure in my mask and water started flooding in. And then my ears started hurting because they would not equalize pressure either (Austin Allergies). They started hurting real bad and I instinctively and continuously pushed the level to ascend fast to get out of the depth. I started to go up like a projectile. My instructor held me down and later yelled at me never to do that. Not only should you not descend fast, you are not to ascend fast either unless you want to hurt your self. In scuba diving three should not be sudden changes despite all our instincts or panic to get out of water. In fact, 70% of all accidents, on investigation, were found to have non empty air tanks. So, basically, panic is the culprit in those accidents because there still was air to breathe.
For humans, instinct can lead us wrong because most often we are going against nature in our pursuit of goals. For example, when you are hiring people without proper and professional training about hiring you will make bad decisions. Hiring is not a natural process. In fact, what helps you make friends can help your ruin your business. Sales is not a natural process either. In fact, all of the sales process goes against our ego. Without proper training you will make mistakes. So, just because you make money and run an organization does not mean that you are doing the right things. Nothing hides mistakes better than than success does.
Fortunately, today 6 PM to 11 PM are all theory classes.
Published by The 8020Strategy Group,