{"id":175,"date":"2023-03-01T14:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T13:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pcrest.com\/blog\/?p=175"},"modified":"2023-03-01T14:05:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T13:05:48","slug":"stop-running-and-screaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/01\/stop-running-and-screaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Running and Screaming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/circle.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/circle.png 900w, https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/circle-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/circle-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.<\/p>\n<cite>Herman Wouk<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are a few things less productive than running in circles while screaming and shouting, but not many. When we are full of self-doubt, especially because we\u2019re second guessing a decision or past performance, we\u2019re really just running in circles inside our own head, letting our fears and worry do the screaming and shouting. They usually sound something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cI totally screwed up X!\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cIt\u2019s so obvious now\u2026I should have done Y instead!\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cArrrrgh!! I can\u2019t believe I did Z. How embarrassing!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The common theme is <strong>regret <\/strong>and <strong>I wish I had a time machine and a do-over<\/strong><em><strong>.<\/strong><\/em> Add an old dog and you have some really sad country music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The past is what has passed; it is beyond our ability to pull back into the present in order to change it. What we <strong>CAN <\/strong>do is find a way to make peace with it\u2014to stop the running and shouting. This is best done through accepting that it <strong>is <\/strong>past and cannot be changed. Running and shouting is a waste of time and energy; no matter how fast you run or loudly you shout today, it doesn\u2019t change yesterday. So stand still and let go of the wish for a do-over. There is consolation to be found in doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But beyond that measure of peace, there is something <strong>productive <\/strong>we can do before we let the past go. We can consciously replace our second-guessing with reflection and self-assessment. This allows us to mine the past decision or performance for any information that will help us in the future. We can\u2019t change the past, but we can learn from it so that we do better next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When we reflect, we replay the decision or performance as if we\u2019re watching an old movie. We look for information we didn\u2019t have at the time, play \u201cWhat if?\u201d, and gather any <strong>Insights<\/strong>. When we self-assess, we decide on the criteria we\u2019ll use (what we\u2019ll look at) and then do what we can to collect and measure any evidence. Based on that evidence, we can determine the <strong>Strengths <\/strong>of our decision or performance and what <strong>Improvements <\/strong>we can make\u2014not <strong>on <\/strong>the past\u2014but <strong><em>in <\/em><\/strong>the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a lot less exhausting and a lot more productive and cheerful than where we started, even if we do add the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/dog1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-177\" width=\"302\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/dog1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/dog1-300x248.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 302px) 100vw, 302px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Herman Wouk There are a few things less productive than running in circles while screaming and shouting, but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33,34],"tags":[44,5,48,49,45,47],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-attitude","category-self-assessment","tag-doubt","tag-intentional","tag-past","tag-reflection","tag-self-doubt","tag-worry","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}