Split second decisions
I once had the privilege of traveling in the cabin of an airplane. I discovered that the captain of the plane was sitting idle most of the time. He seemed relaxed. He was enjoying his coffee and chatting with me very casually, as if he too was a traveler like me.
This was just the opposite of my perception of the captain’s job in the cockpit of a moving aircraft. I assumed that he was busy, tense, preoccupied, and physically involved in activities of adjusting and controlling buttons and levers, etc.
I asked him why the job of a pilot is highly paid and considered difficult and ‘what was your specific role as the captain of the plane?’
He explained to me how modern aircraft can be programmed to run in autopilot mode until everything is running normally on the ‘expected lines’. The other members of the crew were engaged in rituals in accordance with the instructions he gave them before takeoff. They can handle minor problems at work.
You have to keep an eye on everything – the machines, the controls, and your team members – working as expected. The real work of him begins during emergency situations. It is during those situations where his vast experience and training will count. He has to make split-second decisions in the worst of circumstances. That’s what they pay you for. To make it easier for you to execute his decisions, he had controls parallel to but superior to the co-pilot who is actually flying the plane. Therefore, he was able to nullify the effect of any immature action by the co-pilot. To carry out his work with honesty and sincerity (realizing that his own life and the lives of all the passengers were at stake in his performance) he was “calm”. ‘with the environment so that he can work as well as possible.
It is also possible to have a similar arrangement in our lives and soar in the vast sky of our imagination. Most of the activities in our current society are just mechanical rituals. Let them happen as they are, unless there is something very disturbing. Don’t overload your mind. Just relax and enjoy. Simply instruct the work team (in case you have the privilege of having one) informing them before the start of any important event. After that, let them do their job and don’t interfere. Be cheerful and conserve your energies and abilities for any emergency situation, if it comes to your life.
We must free our minds to identify the emergency situation shortly beforehand and focus on decision-making during that time. But unfortunately, we are so busy with so many things on our minds that we turn the normal events in our lives into emergencies and use our decision-making power so generously that we are exhausted when we encounter the real event.
