Here is a concept of crisis management that might be of use to you in times of unexpected mental, emotional or physical stress.
The answer to any crisis or stressful situation, large or small is to: do the usual. Don’t waste your time and attention trying to figure out some new, untried solution. When something comes up that invites an unusual solution due to some emergency du jour . . . do the usual . . . and things will tend to stabilize.
When faced with some real or imagined danger, just doing ordinary things will tend to extrovert your attention, get you back in control, and get things back into a normal mode again. This allows you to catch your breath and decide on an effective plan to handle the situation.
Just as people in stressful careers, military, air traffic control, pilots, performers, athletes and others have a set pattern of usual and effective actions to perform in any crisis or emergency situation, you can and should develop a action plan to use for individual crisis management.
Yes, there are times when drastic measures are called for to get out of some dangerous situation, but most of the time, doing the usual will calm things down so you can put out the fire.
Any plan must contain at least these three basic steps:
The three A’s.
1. Awareness
2. Assessment
3. Achievement
Step one is to be aware of what is happening around you. This also includes being sufficiently conversant with how things are supposed to work under normal conditions so you can instantly tell when something is going wrong. Correct observation is the first key to success on this step.
Second, remain calm so that you make a correct assessment or evaluation of the situation and your available resources before taking action. Deciding upon the right action to take instead of unthinkingly reacting to the crisis is the second key to success.
Thirdly, once you know what is going on and have evaluated which options and resources are available to you, then just do the usual, and the actions done that will lead to the accomplishment of what needs to be done under the circumstances.
Most often, just doing the usual will calm things down, stabilize people and situations long enough to get things back under control. This is the third step that will begin to normalize things and get you on the path to recovery and expansion.
Above all, your actions should be in the direction of doing the usual, and not simply re-acting the real or imagined threat facing you.
Your survival depends on whether you know and can apply these three steps – but more importantly, how fast you can get into action under extraordinary and unusually stressful circumstances.
The key is: do the usual.
daniel w. jacobs
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