Practice Makes Pretty Good

Hello from sleepy south Gippsland where practice makes perfect. Or if not perfect, then pretty good. It turns out that turning up to do the work on a regular basis gives pretty good results. My teenaged daughter has spent many hours over the last week working on mimicking Detroit-style deep dish pizza. I am happily reaping the rewards of her consistent practice.

Practice is a key piece of our thoughts on heroism. Doing small good things every day is an excellent way to prepare for heroic action when (if) the time comes. If you’re regularly focusing on others and acting on their behalf, you’re more likely to do that when helping them gets scary.

The research undertaken by HIP and others often sees a history of practice in those who perform heroics. The news stories today reflect that commonality and importance of a heroic habit.

NYPD officers turn into subway heroes (LINK)

I’m not going to discuss whether people doing their jobs are heroes here (it’s been done many times), but the officers involved in this rescue had some key quotes.

"He was a big guy, but with enough push ups from the academy, you're able to hoist him up." This reminded me of a conversation with a Parkour practitioner in London who also rescued someone who had fallen onto the Tube tracks. He jumped onto the tracks because he knew he could physically do it, lift up an unconscious person, and get back up onto the platform. If you know what you’re capable of, you’ll be more confident performing in a crisis.

"If you're wearing that shield on your chest, that's your duty." We talk about creating a code in our training. When you feel you have a duty or an obligation, you’ll feel more compelled to act.

People in redlined neighborhoods may be less likely to receive bystander CPR (LINK)

The article suggests this fact is down to a lack of training and education. People living in poverty have less access to CPR training. While I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, it’s a good point. If we know what to do and how to do it, we’re more likely to take action.

“Beyond not knowing what to do, some people may hesitate to step in because they distrust the emergency medical system or fear being held liable should something go wrong.”

‘Restored my faith’: Off-duty first responder describes heroic acts at deadly crash (LINK)

“In 29 years as an emergency medic technician he has never seen an outpouring of human compassion like he saw that day.”

Medics are used to people driving past during accidents, but this occurrence saw around ten vehicles stop. It’s likely, from our research, that once one person stopped, others saw a need. If no-one is helping, it can be hard to notice a need. Be first and others will follow.

That’s it this week. Keep sending links as you see them. If you get into the habit of sending interesting stories, these emails will have more content for you to consider. See what I did there?

I am willing to taste-test anyone’s deep dish pizza practice, too.

Matt