Being able to handle life’s dirty tricks without losing one’s equanimity, interest, and joy is vital to learning and achievement. The ability to call on one’s knowledge and apply it well and completely is disrupted when we fall prey to emotional disturbances. Rather than deny or stifle emotions, we must work to gain an understanding of them, learn to make peace with them, and ultimately, channel them into higher levels of performance. By keeping our cool under trying conditions, we can arrive at precise conclusions and take positive and effective action at all times, especially during the most complicated and critical moments.
In Josh’s Words:
Listen:
“Left to my own devices, I am always looking for ways to become more and more psychologically impregnable. When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. My instinct is always to seek out challenges as opposed to avoiding them.” p 60
Further reading: Chapter 5: The Soft Zone, Chapter 12: Using Adversity.
From THE ART OF LEARNING by Josh Waitzkin. Copyright © 2007 by Josh Waitzkin LLC.
Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc
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December 19th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Learning to RESPOND instead of REACT to adversity is an awesome goal. In addition to Josh and The Art of Learning, several people/ resources have helped me:
Andy Dooley, a Law of Attraction comedian, encourages people to ask the following three questions when an adverse situation arises: “What am I doing right?”, “For what am I grateful?” and, “What is the gift in this?” (what can be learned from this situation?). For more, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ELFrExPng.
A firefighter, Rebecca Joy, has started a website, http://www.simpleawareness.com. Her goal is to teach people to do the following before taking action or making a decision: -STOP- BREATHE- and while trusting that they already have the answer, -ASK-, “What do I need to know in this moment?” She then encourages them to -LISTEN- to the incredible innate wisdom that will enable the making of good, healthy choices.
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