Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Sight Is An Illusion

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight not no vision. – Helen Keller
To create the experience of sight, your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world, other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention. All of these things and far more are linked in your brain to your sight. - Isacc Lidsky

In the fire service, we talk a lot about vision (leader's intent) and situation awareness. In this blog we are focusing on what we see and the reality each of is creating. We don't want to give too much away, so watch Isacc Lidsky's video and then dig a little deeper into the subject and discuss the video on our Facebook page when we share it there.



Living With Your Eyes Wide Open

Isacc Lidsky contends that living your life eyes wide open is a learned discipline. He provides the following strategy:
  • Hold yourself accountable for every moment, every thought, every detail.
  • See beyond your fears.
  • Recognize your assumptions.
  • Harness your internal strength.
  • Silence your internal critic.
  • Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success.
  • Accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and understand the difference.
  • Open your hearts to your bountiful blessings.
  • Let go of the excuses.
  • Search out your backwards-swimming fish.
Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper
  • Using Linsky's suggestions for living a life with your eyes wide open, conduct a self-/selves-awareness check. 
  • How does fear affect command presence?
  • Was there anything mentioned in this video that will enhance your situation awareness?
  • How do the slides we have affect our decisions?
  • How are sight and vision different?
  • Download the 2017 Wildland Fire Leadership Campaign Reference Guide
    • Learn more about your self or selves.
    • Participate in the campaign with team/group/unit members.

2017 Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge logo

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is Excellent! Thank you for showing it. Could also be called 'Radical Accountability', which is what the speaker is modeling in his life. He had a cognitive sense taken away from him so his mind and body responded by heightening his other senses, and not just that and of more importance, they are coupled with his impeccable character and humble nature. So many valuable perspectives and angles, I really understand and can relate to what he is sharing, albeit I'm not physically blind. This was extremely helpful and I'm grateful to have come across it.

pmcdonald said...

Thanks so much. We appreciate the feedback. If you come across other topics of value, feel free to share them with us.