Third Excerpt: Instinct
Often in life, things will not get done without motivation or planning. Events will not take place until someone feels initiated enough to take charge and complete them. More often than not, strategic advance planning is required, knowing full well the situation could change at any moment, making the plans utterly useless (unless, of course, you plan ahead for such contingencies. Even still, knowing which contingencies to plan for doesn't always work, either). Still, we make these plans, and adhere to them as best as possible, in the hopes of completing whatever we are attempting to accomplish smoothly, efficiently, effectively.
So what happens when something hits you unexpectedly? How do you react to an event you never saw coming?
Nature has provided us with many gifts in our evolutionary history. Instinct is, by far, one of the most beneficial for survival, and yet one of the most subdued since we left the "animal" categorization. We attribute our efforts in becoming higher beings to being able to control impulses, rapid actions without thoughts, because the outcomes of such events aren't always beneficial now that we've become civilized. Instincts are still there, but they are used less and less frequently. Some of us have learned to train ourselves to react without thinking, mental and physical muscle memory, to achieve greatness in specialties; athletics, surgery, anything that requires precision coupled with speed. But this is hardly instinct.
Instinct, in its truest form, is mental reaction, fueled by an adrenaline rush. The pulse quickens, perspiration beads start forming, and we just go. We do. We act. Little, if any thinking, is done, circling back to the original "fight or flight" nature of instinct. Self-preservation. Perhaps this is cellular memory from ancestors past, passing on inherent knowledge of how to preserve oneself.
We know exactly what to do, without always understanding how or even what it is that we're doing.
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I was the one who found my father's motionless body, although I've never been quite sure how many people know this. What they also don't know is how, without hesitation, I went into "survival" mode. I flew up the staircase, faster than I can ever remember moving before. I simultaneously woke my mother and dialed 911, relaying the information to her first and then again to the operator. I flew back down the staircase and, inexperienced and ultimately unsuccessful, performed CPR on my father.
I can't explain how I did these things. I live my life in a sea of procrastination and laziness, often operating by expending as little energy as possible. I shirk leadership opportunities because I take responsibility very seriously and often do meet the same level of commitment from other people. Yet in this case, I did not hesitate to execute. The tasks needing to be completed were laid out within my brain in an instant, and within seconds, were completed. I have no idea how they got there, nor how I knew what I was doing. But I was doing it, swiftly and efficiently.
Instinct happened.
So what happens when something hits you unexpectedly? How do you react to an event you never saw coming?
Nature has provided us with many gifts in our evolutionary history. Instinct is, by far, one of the most beneficial for survival, and yet one of the most subdued since we left the "animal" categorization. We attribute our efforts in becoming higher beings to being able to control impulses, rapid actions without thoughts, because the outcomes of such events aren't always beneficial now that we've become civilized. Instincts are still there, but they are used less and less frequently. Some of us have learned to train ourselves to react without thinking, mental and physical muscle memory, to achieve greatness in specialties; athletics, surgery, anything that requires precision coupled with speed. But this is hardly instinct.
Instinct, in its truest form, is mental reaction, fueled by an adrenaline rush. The pulse quickens, perspiration beads start forming, and we just go. We do. We act. Little, if any thinking, is done, circling back to the original "fight or flight" nature of instinct. Self-preservation. Perhaps this is cellular memory from ancestors past, passing on inherent knowledge of how to preserve oneself.
We know exactly what to do, without always understanding how or even what it is that we're doing.
------
I was the one who found my father's motionless body, although I've never been quite sure how many people know this. What they also don't know is how, without hesitation, I went into "survival" mode. I flew up the staircase, faster than I can ever remember moving before. I simultaneously woke my mother and dialed 911, relaying the information to her first and then again to the operator. I flew back down the staircase and, inexperienced and ultimately unsuccessful, performed CPR on my father.
I can't explain how I did these things. I live my life in a sea of procrastination and laziness, often operating by expending as little energy as possible. I shirk leadership opportunities because I take responsibility very seriously and often do meet the same level of commitment from other people. Yet in this case, I did not hesitate to execute. The tasks needing to be completed were laid out within my brain in an instant, and within seconds, were completed. I have no idea how they got there, nor how I knew what I was doing. But I was doing it, swiftly and efficiently.
Instinct happened.