No. I am not going to write about Big Brother. I am writing about true survival. Survival in life and death situations. I read an article recently in Easy Living (it's better than you think) about people who survive plane crashes and other disasters. A bit like my book on Success, the article explored what the differentiating personality traits were of those who succeed, only in this case it wasn't professional success but living itself which was the focus - who comes out alive and who doesn't.
It was interesting for me as I sometimes ponder whether I would keep my wits about me in such a situation or whether I would panic or become frozen to the ground. I am not known for my fast reaction time. But does this mean I would fight to stay alive or give in and die?
Of course, in some situations there is no choice. Death occurs because you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. But in some cases a group of people survive the initial disaster but only a small number survive long enough to be rescued. What is the difference?
One quality that these people have is that they are able to remain in the moment and do the best thing they can do at that time with the information they have.
The optimists tend to fantasise about rescue being around the corner, consoling themselves that in just a few minutes or within the next hour, a rescue will occur. When it doesn't they become increasingly depressed and this can actually kill them. They give in to the elements.
Pessimists, of course, believe rescue will never come. Again, they can't sustain the long-haul because they believe nothing can be done to change the outcome. They give in too.
It is those who remain calm, who think "What do I need to do right now?" who survive (where survival is physically possible). One man who made it to a lifeboat when the ferry he was on capsized said that he knew he had to stay alert and awake. He was always looking out for the next thing that was going to save his life.
At the same time, he also had a life purpose which kept him going when death seemed like a welcoming option. He was freezing cold, many others around him had died and he had no idea if rescue would come. But he knew he hadn't achieved all he wanted in his life and was determined to survive.
This is an interesting contrast. He was in the moment yet he had a long-term purpose. He was able to manage these two simultaneously. I think this is very hard to do. When one starts thinking about the long term purpose one can get lost in the future - imagining all the things one wants to achieve, the things one hasn't achieved yet...it would be easy to become depressed rather than find this motivating.
At the same time, one needs to stay in the moment - what is the next thing I need to do?
But it seems clear that this isn't just a recipe for surviving a life or death situation. It is a recipe for life. Balancing that need to be in the present, to make good decisions every second of the day based on the information available at that time, whilst also seeing the long-term purpose and working towards that with every decision you make today is a pretty good recipe for success whatever the challenge.
Those businesses who are strong today have been making good decisions throughout this recession (and probably were in the habit of doing so before). They decided every day how to take a step forward. But they didn't do that from within a vacuum. They had the long term purpose very clearly in their mind.
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