25 - CRITICAL DECISION PATHWAY

More important than speed in decision making is identifying and focusing on the critical pieces of information and your specific goals. Only after distinguishing between what is possible, what is probable and what is hoped for should you then decide on a course of action. You don’t ever need to let go of what is hoped for, but you must not let it blind you. Again, walk through your decisions with both shoes on.

When a pilot loses all the hydraulics and all control of the ailerons, wing flaps and rudder, critical decisions need to be made with hundreds of lives on the line as to how to get the plane on the ground safely. There are dozens of dials reading out bits of information in front of him and hysteria in the cabin behind him. Likewise, a scrambling NFL quarterback with eyes scanning down field as the pocket collapses around him must deal with a similar information overload as he searches for a receiver. Both pilot and quarterback must find a critical decision pathway even though both situations are fluid with many parameters changing moment by moment in the air or on the playing field.

There are people who study these decisions and write about them such as Jonah Lehrer in How We Decide. They examine not just what the right decisions are, but how they are made, which techniques make the difference between a safe landing and catastrophe, between getting sacked and tossing a game-winning pass. They found that stellar pilots and winning quarterbacks are able to deal selectively, despite emotional overload, with the overwhelming amount of changing information and focus on the most important pieces of data. "They were always thinking about what they should think about, which let them minimize potential distractions”. For instance, when pilot Al Haynes’ DC 10 was disabled after flying into a flock of geese he realized that he could not steer; he had no rudder or flap control. He only had control of the throttle levers to produce variable thrust in the remaining two engines. Everything else in the cockpit was virtually useless so he immediately zeroed in on the possibility of steering with his engines. *8

It is equally important for the cancer patient to prioritize bits of information and focus their thoughts. You must make a conscious effort to clear the clutter off your working memory workbench. That means...

Just too much to say here -----check out Cancer's Bell Lap for more.