Every day we have decisions to make. Should I clear up these dishes now and risk being late for that appointment, or prioritise the appointment and deal with the dishes later? Or should I hurry and hope to do both? Normally we don’t think for long; we just default to our usual way of doing things. For some, the cleanliness of the house will be top priority; others would never risk being late; still others have a built-in drive to get everything done.
But our default methods don’t always work, because not all problems require the same type of thinking. For example, a successful marathon runner really struggled when it came to writing assignments at university. The problem was not a lack of literacy; it came down to using the wrong strategy. In marathon training, more is better. The more you do, the fitter you get. But at university, endlessly adding more does not make for a succinct, well-written essay.
When a crisis happens, we’re shaken out of old habits. To deal with the emergency, we need to re-think our priorities. We might even realise that our usual habits have tipped us off balance, making the crisis inevitable. For example, the person who tries to do everything might eventually take on so much that they end up having an accident, an illness or a breakdown.
Faced with new challenges, it pays to remember that our usual strategies are not the only – or necessarily the best – ways of responding. Rather than automatically reacting in our usual way, we can choose to see the difficulty as an opportunity to practise new skills, or possibly as a wake-up call to the dangers of relying solely on old habits. This is how life events help us to grow.
Stephanie Hills ©