How to Fight Back the
Human Instinct to Flee When You Panic
In 2003, Aron Ralston went hiking alone in southeastern
Utah. An experienced outdoorsman, the trail didn’t seem to present any danger
for him. Things were going well until he slipped, dislodged an 800-lb. boulder,
and was pinned to the canyon wall by it. With limited supplies and no way to
call for help, he realized that the only way he’d leave the canyon alive was if
he amputated his arm. Using a dull multi-tool and leverage, he managed to free
himself after five days.
Aron could have lost his wits and died in the canyon. He had to
be willing to fight for his life.
We’d all like to stay calm under pressure, but the reality is
that some of us panic, while others among us have the drive to fight for what
they want.
“Fight
or Flight” Keeps Us Alive
When
faced with challenges, people tend to panic. Our brains do everything they can
to keep us alive. When we’re afraid, it sends us the signal to either fight or
flee.
When you are afraid, your amygdala sets off a chain reaction in
your brain. Your amygdala is responsible for making you fight or flee, and
it can even play a part in self-defeating behaviors and resistance.
When your amygdala perceives that you’re in danger, it sends a
distress message to your hypothalamus. The hypothalamus overrides the normal
way your brain handles incoming information. It activates the sympathetic
nervous system, which triggers what you feel when you are afraid.
We usually respond to a distress signal by fighting or fleeing.
When your survival is at stake, you react without thinking. Your brain either
tells you to stay on the path and fight through it, or give up.
The
Pitfall of Flight
When
you are in physical danger, your flight response can save your life. It’s not
that flight is bad, but sometimes our brains tell us to flee in situations that
aren’t life-threatening.
You may feel the urge to flee when you face something that seems
overwhelming. You might tell yourself a negative story about how you won’t
succeed if you continue on your current path. With that mindset, failure is
almost guaranteed. You don’t believe that you can make it, so you
won’t. Flight can keep us from reaching our potential.
People who always choose flight give up quickly. At the first
sign of a challenge, they jump to another task. This is the person who runs
away from difficulties in their personal and professional lives because they
don’t think they can deal with them.
Make
Fighting the Only Option
You may
have the impulse to run away, but you can re-frame your thinking. Next time you
panic over some challenge at work, choose to fight by telling yourself a
positive story. Replace your negative self-talk with hopeful internal dialogue.
Even if your positive story doesn’t end up being true, it can be
enough to keep you going. People who beat the odds often do so by visualizing
an excellent outcome. When you know that your intention is to keep going, it
makes you more persistent and keeps you motivated. Hope carries people through
the toughest times.
Fight
Like You’re in a Video Game
If you
take a moment to reflect on your situation, you can imagine a positive message
that will override the negative story you’re telling yourself. Any time
self-doubt creeps into your head, play your positive story.
Make overriding your fear a game. Games are fun, and they break
challenges into more bearable parts. Playing games that are too easy is boring,
which makes challenges the perfect thing to turn into a game. Challenging games
are more difficult, but they’re more fun and engaging.
The best games have multiple levels,
enemies that increase in difficulty as you become a
better player, and achievements along the way. When you get an achievement, it
motivates you to strive for the next level.
As you play, you can look back and see your progress. You either fail and have to try
again, or you succeed and get something good for all your effort. This process
is addictive to players.
One of the best ways to turn challenges into games is to break your big goal into smaller steps. Milestones
help you check your progress and stay motivated. Achieving a milestone is like
entering a new level of the game. Give yourself rewards and punishments so that
you have extra motivation to move forward.
Ralston’s brush with death wasn’t a fun game by any stretch of
the imagination, but he did have certain milestones that he reached in order to
decide what to do next. At first he tried to survive with the limited supplies
he had. He hoped someone would find him.
When his supplies ran out, and it became clear that nobody would
find him, had to take more serious action. After he discovered that his hand
was dying from being trapped under the weight of the boulder, he realized he
would lose part of his arm anyway. This knowledge combined with his ultimate
goal of survival led him to do what he had to do.
Even though his work was gruesome, he described grinning when he
realized he was going to make it out of the canyon. When he freed himself, he
got over the largest hurdle in his ordeal.
Keep on
Playing
If Aron
Ralston decided not to fight, he would have died. For him, there was nowhere to
run, but if he fought he stood a chance at making it.
People who reach their fullest potential don’t give up easily.
They don’t run away at the first sign of trouble. They take the hits and keep
going.
Leon Ho
http://www.lifehack.org/646148/how-to-fight-back-the-human-instinct-to-flee-when-you-panic?ck_subscriber_id=168781672
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