Lessons Learned

2. Control Your Destiny

Julian Rotter, a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, developed the concept of what he calls "locus of control." Some people, he says, view themselves as essentially in control of the good and bad things they experience—i.e., they have an internal locus of control. Others believe that things are done to them by outside forces or happen by chance: an external locus. These worldviews are not absolutes. Most people combine the two. But research shows that those with a strong internal locus are better off. In general, they’re less likely to find everyday activities distressing. They don’t often complain, whine, or blame. And they take compliments and criticism in stride.

(Intinya, kontrol ada di diri gw sendiri..instead of thinking that something out there that changes me..dengan cara berpikir begini, stress bisa berkurang..kita jadi jarang protes dan menyalahkan..juga bisa easy menghadapi tindakan orang lain..seperti kritik maupun pujian..)

The importance of this mentality is evidenced by tornado statistics. In the past two decades Illinois has had about 50 percent more twisters than Alabama but far fewer fatalities. The discrepancy can be explained, in part, by a study in the journal Science, which found that Alabama residents believed their fate was controlled by God, not by them. The people of Illinois, meanwhile, were more inclined to have confidence in their own abilities and to take action.

(Percaya diri dan mengambil tindakan…tampaknya familiar dengan apa yg gw temuin sehari2..well….positive attitude makes your life better..:D)

This doesn’t mean we should be overconfident. Rather, we should balance confidence with reasonable doubt, self-esteem with self-criticism. And we should do this each day. As Al Siebert put it in his book The Survivor Personality, "Your habitual way of reacting to everyday events influences your chances of being a survivor in a crisis."

(jangan terlalu pede..tapi sadar diri dan nilai diri sendiri juga..lakukan setiap hari..bagaimana kita bereaksi terhadap kejadian sehari2 bakal mempengaruhi besar bagaimana reaksi kita ketika menghadapi krisis..)

Komentar:
Tebul..tebul….percaya kalau takdir ada di tangan kita..dengan demikian kita lebih relaks dan yakin menghadapi masa depan…kalau hal sebaliknya yg kita yakini..kita bakal stress dan takut menghadapi besok…that’s foolish…!

1. Do the Next Right Thing

"Debriefings of survivors show repeatedly that they possess the capacity to break down the event they are faced with into small, manageable tasks," writes John Leach, a psychology professor at Lancaster University who has conducted some of the only research on the mental, emotional, and psychological elements of survival.

(hmm…memecah2 rencana tindakan menjadi hal2 kecil yang dapat dikendalikan..?benarkah kondisi mental, emosi, dan psikologis kita bisa jauh lebih baik dengan melakukan ini?)

"Each step, each chunk must be as simple as possible…. Simple directed action is the key to regaining normal psychological functioning." This approach can sometimes seem counterintuitive. And yet almost any organized action can help you recover the ability to think clearly and aid in your survival.

(pilah2 setiap tahap dan bagian menjadi hal2 yang kecil dan sederhana..dengan demikian fisiologismu akan bekerja dengan lebih baik. Benar juga..kalau kita overhelming, kita udah seperti "eneg" duluan sebelum mengambil tindakan apapun..)

For example, Pvt. Giles McCoy was aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it was torpedoed and sank at the end of World War II, tossing some 900 men into the black of night and the shark-infested Pacific. McCoy, a young Marine, was sucked under the boat and nearly drowned. He surfaced into a two-inch-thick slick of fuel oil, which soaked his life vest and kept him from swimming—although he could see a life raft, he couldn’t reach it.

So he tore off his vest and swam underwater, surfacing now and then, gasping, swallowing oil, and vomiting. After getting hoisted onto the raft, he saw a group of miserable young sailors covered in oil and retching. One was "so badly burned that the skin was stripped from his arms," Doug Stanton writes in his gripping account of the event,

In Harm’s Way. McCoy’s response to this horrific situation was telling. "He resolved to take action: He would clean his pistol." Irrelevant as that task may sound, it was exactly the right thing to do: organized, directed action. He made each one of the sailors hold a piece of the pistol as he disassembled it. This began the process of letting him think clearly. Forcing your brain to think sequentially—in times of crisis and in day-to-day life—can quiet dangerous emotions.

(Hmm..artinya kalau dalam situasi kejepit..If you are in a deep shit, just start do something simple and manageable? dengan kita memaksa otak kita untuk berpikir setahap demi setahap..emosi panik-marah-takut kita bisa di-diamkan… )

Komentar:

Inti langkah pertama ini adalah..lakukan satu demi satu dan mulai dari hal yang sederhana…intinya bukan menyelesaikan seluruh masalah sekaligus, tapi buat otak kita memilah2 tindakan dari hal2 yang paling nyata dulu….dengan demikian kondisi emosi dan pikiran kita terkendali. Kalau emosi dan pikiran sudah terkendali, fisiologis kita juga ikut berfungsi penuh..Make sense, apalagi setelah penulisnya bilang dia mempelajari hal ini selama 30 tahun…hmm…let us see what next..

Gw nemu artikel keren bgt di website http://www.nationalgeographic.com
bacaan ini layak buat di-posting dan dikasih komentar..trutama bwt gw sendiri bisa pelajari, hehehe….

Selamat membaca !

Everyday Survival

by Laurence Gonzales  (posted on National Geographic website)

Most survival guides fail to consider some very useful tools: an individual’s character, wits, and worldview. The tips assembled here will change the way you approach each and every day—and help you survive a particularly bad one.

Long ago I believed that survival meant having a pack full of equipment that would allow me to make fire and build shelter and trap varmints to eat in the wilderness. But then I kept coming across cases in which someone had survived without any equipment or had perished while in possession of all the right tools.

Obviously something else was at work here. After more than three decades of analyzing who lives, who dies, and why, I realized that character, emotion, personality, styles of thinking, and ways of viewing the world had more to do with how well people cope with adversity than any type of equipment or training.

Although I still believe that equipment and training are good to have, most survival writing leaves out the essential human element in the equation. That’s why I’ve concentrated my efforts on learning about the hearts and minds of survivors.

You can start developing these tools of survival now. It takes time and deliberate practice to change. But new research shows that if we adjust our everyday routines even slightly, we do indeed change. The chemical makeup of the brain even shifts.

To make these lessons useful, you have to engage in learning long before you need it—it’s too late when you’re in the middle of a crisis. Presented here are 14 concepts that have proved helpful to survivors in extreme situations, as well as to people trying to meet the challenges of daily life.

Komentar:

Setiap hari gw menghadapi masalah, problem, sesuatu yang bikin gw khawatir..hmm ada baiknya gw membaca dengan seksama artikel ini. Dan gw yakin bisa merefleksikan pengalaman yang udah gw dapet..mungkin gw akan tidak setuju, atau malah gw bakal setuju sama sebagian besar tips yang ada di artikel ini..

Sebuah pembukaan yang sangat bagus, bahwa hidup ini bukan tentang "apa" yang kita hadapi, tapi "bagaimana" kita menghadapi nya yang paling utama. Kekayaan material atau ketenangan batin atau apapun yang kita "dapat" bisa hilang kapan aja. Tapi selama kita tahu "bagaimana" cara memperoleh hal2 itu, kita bisa raih kembali kapanpun hal itu diambil dari kita..right?

Besides, life is not just about how hard you get hit, but how you get hit, and get up to fight again..!

So I better practicing those now..