A friend shared the graph describing a thanksgiving turkey’s well-being the few months before thanksgiving. Your current state feels great – you are being fed well and you live a good life. This gets reinforced with time and you have every reason to feel better and better about yourself and life. Until..
Source: whywereason.com
We have many many great examples of turkeys in real life – the company that was oblivious to the fact that it needed to change it’s business model or be disrupted, the executive who thought of himself as indispensible, the insensitive wretch who thought their financially dependent partner could never leave him/her, and so on. Why?
1. They get fat with the joys of success.
2. They get complacent and stop looking over their backs.
3. They begin ignoring the signs of the road ahead.
We have suckers on most tables who are simply oblivious to what’s going on – not because they are incapable but because they choose to ignore the signs and ask – why am I so lucky?
A healthy dose of cynicism is very helpful in avoiding the turkey’s fate. My weakness is that I’m not cynical enough. Life experiences and a focus on “a learning a day” have taught me to focus on the positive – so much so that it’s become a part of who I am. A touch of positive delusion is a useful skill – it enables you to take more risks, fail more, and still ensure you stay happy. That said, there’s a balance to be had between a positive attitude and some healthy cynicism. This bit of cynicism does come with experience and it’s something I’m learning to pay more attention to.
So, if you’re feeling great, that’s great. But, guard against being carried away for too long. Extreme emotions dull our sensitivity to obvious signs. Remember the turkey. Stay lean and mean. Don’t drink your own kool aid and get cocky. Stay alert. You’re only as good as your next game.
Don’t be the turkey.
A Learning a Day 