If you only see one option to the crisis, take a moment to find two more, then select the best. And be creative while thinking up options. Creative thinking, here, simply means to find new uses or solutions for available objects or situations

Doesn't searching for three options take time? Yes, but not much. The brain works fast. This simple pause could save your life. Here’s an exa

Your usual coping strategies, even your best ones, may not work in a crisis. New strategies for gathering information, judging its usefulness, and deciding on the best option are absolutely necessary.

You've probably never faced a situation like this. That's why it's a "CRISIS". Otherwise, it would be a problem or a challenge, but not a crisis. For a problem or a challenge, you have a set of learned behaviors, such as: 1. gather the facts, 2. consider options, 3. choose the best, then 4. act. There is no need to be fast thinking, no time restriction.

In a crisis, you need perceptual skills of a different order. You must be quick to look, listen, feel, and smell to gather the pertinent information for survival. In our culture, we've seldom had to do this. Maybe never before. Some practice helps.

Once you've gathered the danger information, the exit information, the key pieces of the environmental data, you must quickly choose the best option, one you've never tried before, and then do it.

Our habits, our usual mental patterns, probably won't work here. You can't take the elevator, and which stairs, up or down? Maybe the only exits are windows. Do they open? If not, how do you break the glass? What floor are you on? How high up are you? A million questions to answer with your perceptions and only a few moments to find the best answers. How do you prepare for a crisis?

Here are some suggestions to lay down some synapses in your memory so if the real thing happens, you will have rehearsed for faster, better decisions.

Decision Making in a Life and Death Situation

The first mistake you may make is the result of the way the brain processes your perceptions. The brain's first response is, of course, fight or flight or freeze. For all of these responses the brain first activates patterns you've already used. This may evoke the worst possible response. Instead of falling into a habitual pattern, you probably need to become creative. Non-survivors of Hurricane Katrina barricaded their doors and drowned when the first wave hit. The survivors used their doors as rafts to float out. Creative thinking.

If you only see one option to the crisis, take a moment to find two more, then select the best. And be creative while thinking up options. Creative thinking, here, simply means to find new uses or solutions for available objects or situations

Doesn't searching for three options take time? Yes, but not much. The brain works fast. This simple pause could save your life. Here’s an exam

In a crisis, you need perceptual skills of a different order. You must be quick to look, listen, feel, and smell to gather the pertinent information for survival. In our culture, we've seldom had to do this. Maybe never before. Some practice helps.

Once you've gathered the danger information, the exit information, the key pieces of the environmental data, you must quickly choose the best option, one you've never tried before, and then do it.

Our habits, our usual mental patterns, probably won't work here. You can't take the elevator, and which stairs, up or down? Maybe the only exits are windows. Do they open? If not, how do you break the glass? What floor are you on? How high up are you? A million questions to answer with your perceptions and only a few moments to find the best answers. How do you prepare for a crisis?

Here are some suggestions to lay down some synapses in your memory so if the real thing happens, you will have rehearsed for faster, better decisions.

Decision Making in a Life and Death Situation

The first mistake you may make is the result of the way the brain processes your perceptions. The brain's first response is, of course, fight or flight or freeze. For all of these responses the brain first activates patterns you've already used. This may evoke the worst possible response. Instead of falling into a habitual pattern, you probably need to become creative. Non-survivors of Hurricane Katrina barricaded their doors and drowned when the first wave hit. The survivors used their doors as rafts to float out. Creative thinking.

If you only see one option to the crisis, take a moment to find two more, then select the best. And be creative while thinking up options. Creative thinking, here, simply means to find new uses or solutions for available objects or situations

Doesn't searching for three options take time? Yes, but not much. The brain works fast. This simple pause could save your life. Here’s an exa

Our habits, our usual mental patterns, probably won't work here. You can't take the elevator, and which stairs, up or down? Maybe the only exits are windows. Do they open? If not, how do you break the glass? What floor are you on? How high up are you? A million questions to answer with your perceptions and only a few moments to find the best answers. How do you prepare for a crisis?

Here are some suggestions to lay down some synapses in your memory so if the real thing happens, you will have rehearsed for faster, better decisions.

Decision Making in a Life and Death Situation

The first mistake you may make is the result of the way the brain processes your perceptions. The brain's first response is, of course, fight or flight or freeze. For all of these responses the brain first activates patterns you've already used. This may evoke the worst possible response. Instead of falling into a habitual pattern, you probably need to become creative. Non-survivors of Hurricane Katrina barricaded their doors and drowned when the first wave hit. The survivors used their doors as rafts to float out. Creative thinking.

If you only see one option to the crisis, take a moment to find two more, then select the best. And be creative while thinking up options. Creative thinking, here, simply means to find new uses or solutions for available objects or situations

Doesn't searching for three options take time? Yes, but not much. The brain works fast. This simple pause could save your life. Here’s an exa

Decision Making in a Life and Death Situation

The first mistake you may make is the result of the way the brain processes your perceptions. The brain's first response is, of course, fight or flight or freeze. For all of these responses the brain first activates patterns you've already used. This may evoke the worst possible response. Instead of falling into a habitual pattern, you probably need to become creative. Non-survivors of Hurricane Katrina barricaded their doors and drowned when the first wave hit. The survivors used their doors as rafts to float out. Creative thinking.

If you only see one option to the crisis, take a moment to find two more, then select the best. And be creative while thinking up options. Creative thinking, here, simply means to find new uses or solutions for available objects or situations

Doesn't searching for three options take time? Yes, but not much. The brain works fast. This simple pause could save your life. Here’s an exa

If you only see one option to the crisis, take a moment to find two more, then select the best. And be creative while thinking up options. Creative thinking, here, simply means to find new uses or solutions for available objects or situations

Doesn't searching for three options take time? Yes, but not much. The brain works fast. This simple pause could save your life. Here’s an example of a life-threatening situation in which the best answer is counter-intuitive. If you are caught in a whirlpool, don't fight it. Instead, relax, drift to the bottom of the whirlpool where the centrifugal force is less, then you can swim out of the whirlpool and up to the surface. How do you relax when you seem to be drowning? Ah yes, there's the rub. We'll give you some strategies for this later. When you are panicked, your brain shuts down. Most of your blood goes to your limbs and you will not be creative. A peak performance state with its attendant relaxation could be your magic thinking answer. We present this in Chapter 7.

Be sure you've used your eyes, ears, hands (if you are in the dark), and nose to gather as much sensory information as possible, then you’ll be able to quickly summon three options. Only then, should you act. These instructions need some fine-tuning, but that's the general idea of how to use your brain to make the best first move. One more point to keep in mind, as you gather your perceptions, here and now, consider options, and begin to act is; be prepared to change course as any new better options appear. Sheets? If no ladder. Curtains? If no sheets? A window ledge, if neither. A wet towel? Is there time? Hands and knees? Jumping from one roof to another? These are drastic measures, and it's conceivable that finding unorthodox moves could save your life. And your child's life.

I remember being in a small hotel in Los Angeles at 2 am when the fire alarm began clanging. I had been dreaming of the seminar I was teaching in Los Angeles and I thought at first it was a school bell. It woke me up. Disoriented, I reached for the telephone and a calm operator told me to find the stairs and exit immediately. First, I looked out the window. No fire truck. I was on the fifth floor. I found my robe and slippers and took time to put these on. This time could have cost me my life. My nightgown was very short and at that moment, there was no smoke, a calm operator, and so my modesty overrode my survival instinct. Stupid.

Most of the hotel guests were milling around on the sidewalk and street by