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3rd Tip for a Russian Spy Ring: Learn From Past Mistakes

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This entry is part 3 of 9 in the series 10 Tips for a Russian Spy Ring
No Technology in Brighton
Image by Sammy0716 via Flickr

It seems our group of not-so-secret agents got distracted with the good life in America and forgot valuable lessons handed down from experienced old-timers. While technology in the spy business has changed, the mistakes, and lessons learned from them, remain the same. I’m willing to bet that our little spy ring could add several insights on what they learned from the past and how not to repeat their mistakes.

Many people hesitate to visit the past. There are several reasons, but here are few:

  • It brings up painful memories and reminders of how life can get botched up through no fault of our own
  • Memories can stall us
  • We don’t understand how the past can point to the future

What can we learn from looking at the past?

  • Grab hold of the strong and positive instincts that kept us going in the past when things got rough—as far back as childhood and the way we handled not getting to play with the red ball on the playground.
  • Grow these same instincts into traits as adults that we can rely on.
  • Lean on past mistakes to show us the way to change

As a former FBI agent, I was trained in firearms to use “muscle memory.” In a hostile situation, when a split second can make all the difference, agents ask themselves, “What am I trained to do?” Agents remember the mistakes they make in training so they don’t repeat them in real-life situations. In the same way, you can use muscle memory to learn from your mistakes and protect against repeating them.

Let’s look at ways you can use “mental muscle memory” in everyday life:

Start Working Out

Find your strengths and stick with them. Acknowledge your weaknesses and avoid situations where they’ll be exploited. For example, I’m a slow and weak runner. While at Quantico for New Agent’s training, the run was one of the hardest parts of the physical fitness test for me to pass. I worked on improving my running but it wouldn’t be prudent to pretend it was a strong point for me. It would be ridiculous for me to try to outrun a criminal suspect. But I was a good shot and could use those skills in a way to make arrest situations safer for both innocent bystanders and my fellow agents.

TIP: Find your points of strength and continue to develop them. Acknowledge your points of weakness and work on minimizing their negative impact.

  • Go back and remember how well you handled yourself in a stressful situation.
  • Make notes on what you did right and what you’d like to repeat if a similar situation comes up again.
  • Go back and remember how you didn’t handle yourself as well as you’d like in a stressful or unexpected situation.
  • Make notes on what you didn’t like about that response and how you’d do it differently today or if you’d had more time to think about it.

Spend Time in Training

Life as an FBI agent is a life of continual training in firearms and defensive tactics skills. The purpose is to make our responses automatic so we don’t have to stop and think about them in a crisis situation. Since I retired, I now have more time playing catch with my dog. The interesting thing is that the first thing I do when Gus is heading toward me at a dead run is flex my knees and drop my center of gravity because that’s what I was trained to do in situations where I need to keep my balance. My muscles remember the years of training and now it’s second nature.

TIP: Notice the specific behaviors that haven’t served you well in the past. Come up with alternatives for yourself and start practicing them as often as you can during your day. Start training your mental muscle memory so you’re prepared when confronted with a stressful situation.

Keep In Shape

Any athlete will tell you that it’s possible to lose our edge if we don’t keep at it. To keep our muscle memory, it’s a continual process of looking at life and drawing out both the successes and mistakes. Most of our learning in life happens outside the classroom. We never graduate from the school of learning because our world is constantly changing and we need to keep our minds, eyes, and ears open. Our greatest teachers appear every time we make a mistake. Rather than burying ourselves in pity or regret, ask these questions “What is the lesson I can learn from this mistake?” “What can I change next time?”

TIP: Encourage the adventurer—and curious investigator—inside of you to see more than the tip of the iceberg. When you observe reactions in yourself that you don’t understand, or that surprise, you, dig deeper to uncover which circumstances trigger that specific behavior. Keep in shape by looking for ways to improve your response to every situation.

“Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure.”

William Saroyan

Take Away

If we learn from the past, we can protect against repeating our mistakes.

What valuable lessons have your learned from past mistakes?

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The post 3rd Tip for a Russian Spy Ring: Learn From Past Mistakes appeared first on Empower the Leader in You.


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