Probably the Most Important Quote of all Times (in the last paragraph)
Train for the predictable, educate for the unpredictable. (Unsure of original reference)
Training deals with a context that can be measured and calculated. It is often repetitive and fits perfectly with the concept of ‘standard operating procedures’. When performance is largely a result of efficiency, training rules supreme. In a fight it is similar, train the parts you can predict. Speed, endurance, and power will always be factors worth training. (The employment of these faculties is synergetic with mind factors: that is will, creativity, and adaptability.)
*Think about the trainable (predictable & constant) factors in your line of work, make a list.
It is often said that training is 80% physical and 20% mental, while combat is 80% physical and 20% mental. This is critically important to understand if you are someone who (often) enters the arena (in whichever sector you are from).
In the world of special forces there is a high recognition of “will” (determination). In strategic thinking, where an opponent’s strength is estimated, “will” carries a factor of 3. Or as Napoleon famously put it: ‘the mind is to the physical as 3 is to 1’. Now how do we train the mind?
Mental training (more than the connotation of education) – with the purpose of stretching the mind should become a daily routine. Understanding the world around you. Seeing why and how things connect and do not connect. Understanding why people do and do not like each other, why some have more influence than others or seem to remember people’s name better. Why people with power or authority seem to transform – a transformation largely dependent on characteristics of the person in question. What are those characteristics?
But much more important than understanding the world around us is understanding ourselves (the filter through which we see the –our– world). This is what Socrates and Sun Tzu (and countless other sages) claim to be the foundation of wisdom, the starting point of our mind’s growth. This understanding of self (metacognition) is the alpha and omega of will, creativity, and adaptability (in any confrontation with a person, thing, or idea).
We do not see things as they are, but as we are. (Anais Nin)
Worth reading and thinking about for at least a decade- perhaps the most important quote of all times.
