Lessons from skydiving (1) - Have a plan; then another one.

If a young child is interested in something it usually can learn it by trial- and- error.

You want to walk? Stand up, walk a few steps, fall down, get back up,...
Speaking...No biggie.
Soccer? Hit the ball. Did not shoot a goal? Well... Hit it again. Till you know how to do it.
You just turned 18 and now you are taking your first driving lesson... And that other car is closing in very, very fast? Well... You may be stressed and a little freaked out by all the things happening around you(the car, the driving- instructor screaming next to you, the windshield- wiper which is all of a sudden turned on magically,...) but there is one thing you can do: hit the break!!
Guess what? That´s it. You put weight on that one pedal and usually all is good. You got another chance to try driving


But this is called "Lessons from skydiving"...
If you get out of that plane in 4 kilometers above ground and your parachute doesn´t work, you got no altimeter, you become instable, pull your parachute and get tangled up in all the cords, you are heading straight into a obstacle, you got no cords to stir the parachute, etc, etc...
If you got no plan here... Well, you are dead now.
I´m sure you get another chance for trying... At least if you belief in reincarnation.


Most will say: "Well... Of course you have to have a plan."
Right.

So let´s stick with the skydiving example...
You jump out of the plane, do your thing, reach the proper altitude, pull your parachute and... Nothing happens...
So...you gotta have the next step planned out. Pull the reserve.

You pull your main parachute, you feel a pull but not even close to what you should feel because it´s tangled up between the cords and the cords somehow got stuck to you... What now?

The parachute opens but both cords used to pilot it are ripped... WHat now?


You have to have a plan A, then a plan B.



Lets switch to another example close to my field of experience:
A patient has surgery. If a doctor would perform it only educated in the exact steps necessary to do it when everything is working as it should many people would not get out of the operation room alive.

Many banks where not prepared for the economic crisis and therefor a lot of them had to close, leaving thousands, millions without savings.



Where things mather experience has shown you have to think three steps ahead to be save.
Or to be successful.


Do not just cruise through life waiting for something to happen and then complain life is always hitting you the hardest.
Think about the consequences of your doings, create options for every possible way and then create the next line of options...
Be active when thinking about your future.
At first it can be difficult but with time it will become natural.

One thing, especially when dealing with risk risk situations are checklists.
Basically you think through an emergency situation, sort out the most important steps which secure your own safety and the safety of others, prioritize them, put them in an order, write it down and in case of that emergency you go through step- by- step.

For most real- life situations checklists are enough.


Then there are those events which go far too fast to pull out lists and start crossing of points. Maybe it is all happening too fast, you are in a situation where you can not work with lists(on a bicylce, falling from the sky, ...).
For those you still follow the same plan: think about what can happen, what you can do in this situation, what are the priorities and in which order to sort them and then comes one thing each and every man who served in the military dreaded: drills.
You memorize the checklist and perform it in an non- threatening environment over and over again.
Not the most fun training but for certain thing the most essential.



Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry