Breaking the freeze

El Cabrero is generally OK with resolutions, New Year's and otherwise. One that I plan on working on this year is breaking the freeze. The term "breaking the freeze" comes from Rory Miller's writings about violence and self defense, but the idea applies in lots of situations.

Here's how I break it down. Sometimes, when people are in dangerous or simply high pressure situations, they tend to freeze up. Freezing up was once probably an evolutionary adaptation to predators, which often track motion. But it can get you killed or, in less dramatic situations, can cause all kinds of problems, even on as simple a scale as procrastinating and causing work to pile up.

The important thing to do when you are in freeze mode is to recognize it and force yourself to do something. Once you break the freeze by actually acting, you're better able to deal with the situation. One thing I plan on working on this year is breaking the freeze in the sense of making it a practice to make myself jump in and do the things I'd rather delay or not do at all.


Starting tomorrow. Or maybe the day after.

TALKING SENSE. Here's Krugman on debt, national and otherwise.

FAMILY VALUES? Here's an interesting Gazette editorial on how the recession and economic hard times are affecting marriage.

BREAKING HABITS. Here's an interesting item from NPR about kicking bad habits.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED