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Monday, May 23, 2011

Hindsight

The definition of the word Hindsight from several sources describe it as realizing the significance of an event that just occurred.  Including "possibilities or requirements of a situation, event, decision etc., after its occurrence."

Sometimes when something happens to us, we are inexperienced, unprepared or unequipped to handle the situation.  Sometimes you cannot adapt in time to respond to the occurrence. An example is a near death or catastrophic event that happened abruptly.  Another example is if we make a decision that was wrong and it caused something bad to happen.  Or it could be just a student who has just performed or acted on something and wonders after the performance or the action if they did well.  Hindsight, the worst enemy of an insecure teen or worrywart.  We'll think back to that decision or event and we will question or reflect on it.  The question is will we plan or prepare ourselves for the next time it happens?  One of my closest friends told me: "to fix a problem you have to have the right tools, right?".  We forget things sometimes also, but if the impact of that event is so strong or important enough to be addressed, we normally will be prepared next time.

Some people are stuck on not evolving, like they will address an issue with aggression.  They will address an issue with the same straight forward way of thinking.  They won't address the problem with a strategy, even when it has occurred many times before, not thinking outside the box.  I admit I think this way sometimes and it's probably the reason I am writing about it.

I read a book a few years ago.  I forget the title or author and the precise way he described the subject "thinking in the now".  In the book, one of the topics describes how people are not really focused on the world that goes on around them in the immediate present.  The immediate present will have sporadic changes in one's life.  If you're not focused on those changes and focused on the basic routine of life, you will be unequipped to handle the unknown possibilities, causing unknown decisions that will cause hindsight depending the level it impacts you.  You drive your car to work 261 days, minus holidays and time off, a year and it's the same routine.  Nothing major ever happens in five years.  The only changes might be today there is less traffic than yesterday and you're behind a blue Ford Pickup instead of a Black Prius.  You're following the same routine day in and day out until one day a plank of wood slams into your front windshield from a transport truck in front of you.  What changes could have you made to have not have that happen, maybe you should have changed lanes when you saw that huge vehicle in front of you?  Your decision to slam on the brakes, at 55 Miles Per Hour, causes the driver behind you to end up in the Emergency Room in critical condition.  A week passes and the man is still in the Emergency Room. 

Being overly focused on routine and the abrupt change in routine caused an impulsive decision, why not swerve to your left or right instead?  The other two scenarios are our focuses are too much on the future and past.  People focus to much on the future, get things done, get to our destination, or get to our goal, time is not taken to deal with the changes that take place during the destination.  People strive so hard to make their plans work out that they don't adapt to the current changes in the plan.  The other scenario is that someone will be so fixated on what has occurred in the past that maybe in a post traumatic way they react and think that an event that is happening now will turn out the same as it did back then, distracting them from the fact that they can do things differently.  It's logical that we learn from your mistakes and plan today for our future but that's not thinking in the immediate present, being adaptive, that's planning.  Sometimes decisions or actions you need to make comes without plans, you have to react on impulse and hopefully your brain is fast enough to respond properly on the spot.  It's great to plan but changes in the plan need quick responses to prevent looking back on bad decisions or wonder if you made the right act.  You can only plan so much for an event sometimes.  I guess being attentive, having a quick and logical response is a very important thing in preventing hindsight.

Time definitely plays a role in the outcome of a response that will cause looking back on.  How much time do you have to react and make the quick decision for things to turn out right or react properly to the malfunction in the plan.  Can you make the decision or react in a split second when you have a superheroes decision to save a baby or one hundred people that are handicapped?

If you could look back and change one bad event in your life, which would it be?  You can't, so don't think about it too much, you grow from it.  Learn to improve on it the next time it happens or try to adapt faster to events that have yet to teach you a lesson, "think on your toes" when you have no experience in dealing with the issue.

Pain

Urgayle: "Pain is your friend, your ally, it will tell you when you are seriously injured, it will keep you awake and angry, and remind you to finish the job and get the hell home. But you know the best thing about pain?

It let's you know you're not dead"

G.I. Jane (1997)

I saw that movie years ago, loved it, and again a few months ago.  That analogy on pain stuck on my memory, which is something I feel less and less sensitive to everyday. I've dealt with nothing but pain from physical to psychological, yet fight it everyday.  My analogy on pain, is that if you view it as a non-bad thing, it builds character on reacting to initial emotional responses, hence makes a person less sensitive.  Changing your perspective on pain sustains and fortifies you. Like the quote above, unless you're bleeding heavily or have a limb mangled up, then that's not good pain, because then you are physically injured. It tells you to stop, rest, get aide!  Your body tells you the level you can handle.  But the pain that doesn't do that and you can recover from does make you stronger.  Psychologically, it will take you away from being humanly normal, how far it takes you and how far it will take you to come back is another question.  I always like to forgive but believe forgetting is stupid.

You can respect another person more when you not only can see yourself in their position but nothing like going through their ordeal to show empathy or understanding.  The other day, I went paintballing again and it hurt but not from getting hit with paintballs.  What hurt was running around for a few hours with all that gear carrying a gun with a tank and accessories weighing around ten to twelve pounds.  Yes I got some good kills in but also got shot up when I notice my muscles aren't as flexible as they used to be.  This little teenager was moving fast and without agile restraint.  I guess that's why the military recruit from High School.  When they say show love for the troops, I can definitely understand that because I felt a tiny experience of the roughness they go through.  As I was entering the field ready for paint flying at about 260 feet per second combat, I was imagining what it felt like to be a soldier in the military.  They have to wear all that gear, the mask blocks vision and clear focus but they need to wear it because it protects them.  Those soldiers have to aim properly, be fit and make sure they evade those bullets, because it's not paint hitting them, it's a one time end game hitting them.  It's not easy hiding behind something because even hiding behind something the opposite team advances, repositions themselves or can outflank your team.  I must have gotten shot in the head again this game, taste that bitter paint and have a few brown marks to show in the leg and ribs.  At least it wasn't as bad as last time.  Boot camp and staying tough is important to a soldier, hence why drill sergeants aren't lenient, soldiers have to be use to the pain, otherwise they will lose composure under extreme or hostile circumstances, painful circumstances.