CRISIS

Navy Law: If you can keep your head when all about you others are losing theirs, maybe you just don't understand the situation.

Test pilots have a litmus test for evaluating problems. When something goes wrong, they ask, "Is this thing still flying?" If the answer is yes, then there's no immediate danger, no need to overreact. When Apollo 12 took off, the spacecraft was hit by lightning. The entire console began to glow with orange and red trouble lights. There was a temptation to "Do Something!" But the pilots asked themselves, "Is this thing still flying in the right direction?" The answer was yes--it was headed for the moon. They let the lights glow as they addressed the individual problems, and watched orange and red lights blink out, one by one. That's something to think about in any pressure situation. If your thing is still flying, think first, and then act.  

Capt. Alan Bean, USN, Apollo Astronaut, in Reader's Digest.

Statistics and Stuff

What really makes people satisfied with their lives? Amazingly, the secret may lie in a person's ability to handle life's blows without blame or bitterness. These are the conclusions of a study of 173 men who have been followed since they graduated from Harvard University in the early 1940s. The study, reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, noted that one potent predictor of well-being was the ability to handle emotional crisis maturely. 

Today in the Word, November 2, 1993.

Rules for crisis management:

1) Hope for the best, bur prepare for the worst.
2) Look first, then act.
3) When you do act, act aggressively.
4) Seek help.
5) Don't get locked on a detail.
6) No matter how bad things get, be truthful.
7) Look for the silver lining. Reynolds

Dodson, Reader's Digest, June, 1992.