For the next few posts I will be sharing thoughts from a book I’ve enjoyed…
I am not a fan of professional sports. Not to the point of saying I dislike professional sports, but rather I am a bit indifferent. This makes me an outlier in my family. My husband and son have season tickets to the Rams…so I will check the score when they are at a game, just to see if they are having fun. All this to say that I wouldn’t normally pick up a book about sports. When I heard the author interviewed on one of my favorite podcasts, I enjoyed what she had to say enough that I decided to buy her book. The sportswriter is Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post and the book is, “The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life.”
The first chapter is titled, “The ‘Right’ Call: Decisions under Pressure.” The author shares this insight, “Most people are uncomfortable making decisions.” May of us experience anxiety with the idea that we might make the wrong decision…so we sometimes avoid the thing altogether. We have all had to make decisions while under pressure. I wonder about how we deal with the anxiety that accompanies that pressure.
I’ve learned, over time, that being sure about who I am and what I stand for helps. I’ve also learned that bad decisions from the past can be helpful in the present if we allow ourselves to learn from them. Sometimes though, we shy away from analyzing those things from the past. Maybe we want to forget what happened and just move on…but then how are we equipped to handle the next decision under pressure?
Here are a few questions we can ask ourselves to learn from our mistakes:
What really happened? Was it all bad? Or what parts of my decision making am I comfortable with?
What was my role? (we are not responsible for others’ decisions but are impacted by them)
What did this teach me about myself?
What do I need to learn?
If faced with the same situation again, what would I do differently?
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I would love to hear your thoughts.
