Pressure and counting to ten

I've operated in highly-pressured situations over the years and as a young lad, in my late teens, I probably didn't handle it at all well, but I learned; as my journey continued, through training, research, trial and error, I became more adept at dealing with pressure and my results improved because of it.

I say, dealing with pressure, however what I really mean is that I learned to detach from it and to operate effectively and efficiently, despite of it.

Denying that pressure exists isn't always a viable option. Pressure builds internally and externally, often outside of our control, and finding the ability to operate efficiently and professionally and focusing on gaining desired results and outcomes is more important than what caused the pressure in the first place. I see no need to dwell on the source, just the way forward. It requires some form of detachment though, and that happens in one's noggin...but is not always easy to find.

I remember, as a kid, my dad telling me to, count to ten before you act, and, whilst it seems a simple thing, it paid dividends later in life when I applied a more advanced version of it - It's a simple form of detachment that I took and developed.

I recall many specific moments in which pressure mounted exponentially, when chaos and turmoil reigned and a great deal relied on my evaluations, decisions and actions. Whilst I didn't exactly count to ten like my dad told me, I took the time to separate myself from the moment, to find a place within my mind to take myself out of the situation so I could think more clearly. Clarity of thought affects attitude and, for me, that's when the evaluation and decision-making process is most successful. Of course, being prepared for possible eventualities helps also. But should one not be prepared in that way, one should, at least, have the ability to remove (for a moment) the effect of pressure through detachment and find the place in which they can think logically, laterally and with vision firmly on the attainment of the end-goal.

These days at work I don't feel as much pressure as I have in the past but I still feel a version of it occasionally with today being the latest. It wasn't a life or death matter, someone just needed a quote and had phoned one of the factory managers rather than the appropriate person; that's me.

I was handed a vague gist of what was required by that factory-guy who is good at welding things but terrible at doing business, and he (tried to) exert some pressure upon me for a very rapid response, with little detail to work off. It was a quote that I knew would eventually total around $80,000 so I wasn't about to half-ass it. I'd need time and said as much which...wasn't received well.

I felt pretty annoyed considering it would be my ass on the line should things go south however I applied some of the above, the detachment thing, and managed to reduce the feeling of pressure in myself and also brought the factory-guy down a notch or two...all without making him feel disenfranchised. It was a good result.

We all grow, develop and change as human beings as time and circumstances shape us; most for the better I think and some...well, some don't progress so well I suppose.

Looking back on my life, (I can do that now as I've lived a lot of it), I think I've had a good journey and have walked my paths reasonably well. Could I have done better? Yes, of course that is the case for all of us I believe, but generally I have made mistakes, learned from them, made others and learned from them too. Each step I've made has brought me to the man who sits here writing these words and...well, I'm ok I guess. A nutbag and knucklehead for sure, but still (mostly) ok.

There's many elements that have made up my life but one of the most important is how I've handled pressure; it's the glue that has held all the other elements together whilst life did its best to break them apart. Our minds are very capable things if we can find the ability to use them to greater degrees and, if so, we can achieve great things, or make the not so great things not seem as momentous.

So...yeah, I guess I need to thank my dad for that count to ten lesson he drummed into me as a kid because it's that which helped me along on the path to...well, I guess, who I am today. Thanks dad.