Holiday Reflections

A holiday is a great way to step away from the normal and reflect upon events and how you personally reacted to them (and how you influenced them coming into being!). Also something about family and reinvigoration too!

A few personal salient points from this holiday’s reflection time;

• A reminder that staying in the indecisive mindset for longer than your first best thought is well worth it. Have reflected that I (along with most others, like you) am biased towards taking action upon the first intuitive answer that comes into my stream of consciousness (witnessing this was eye opening in relation to non-constructive thoughts after choosing not to take action) which often is the most heavily personally biased answer applicable to the contexts and experiences I have experienced. It’s the solution I want to work rather than the approach that will work. Stress testing, be it with other trusted friends/colleagues or real world scenarios assist proving causation, not theoretical correlation.
• When reflecting on elderly parents and relatives we want autonomy for ourselves, yet default to control over those we love (think nursing homes) or haven’t taken the time to understand (quality vs longevity of life). If we only measure health in the metric of time we are alive we are all individually and collectively poorer for it. Reflected that this is similar to the pervading logic in safety currently re binary states of safety being either; hurt or not hurt. Businesses don’t aim for break-even!
• Flying with a family of four (with master 2) works best in a 2 by 2 configuration on a plane down the back of the plane with said little one behind a parent so they can kick, peek, climb and crawl away. The faces of those around us at the start of the flight vs end of the flight said it all!
• Underappreciated the ability to get sunburnt in a pool under full shade – damn waters ability to reflect UV rays. Also, Bintang translated to English means ‘star’.
• It’s easier to say yes, rather than critically think and reflect whether what you are agreeing to be part of is part of your personal why and reflects your values. I need to be more hell yes rather than just yes from now on.
• A reminder that it’s less energy intensive and easier to direct and tell people what to do and think after you have dehumanised them and judged them to be part of a sample size. I reflected on how often we do this in safety and training and that big data will be a boon in this area helping identify and connect with people as individuals, at scale, based on their past behaviour. None of which, however, surpasses the positives of taking the time to understand and listen to people, being fully present in the moment.

For the above I didn’t follow any set technique or model, just jotted down on paper my thoughts as I witnessed them skywriting across my mind. Encourage anyone to try this in a quiet place. Who knows what reflection you have patiently waiting for you to sit calmly and connect the dots, but I bet its a good one!

Must also thank the team I am part of, for their stellar performance through the time I was away. Based on the absence of immediate burning issues and lack of decisions which needed to be made, it is made clear how personally rewarding and enriching it is to be part of such a team which leads with intent, rather than wait for direction.