The only thing I remember from all the Michael Crichton books I have read is one line from SPHERE
. I tweeted it earlier today in response to a discussion I was having with someone about being stuck in her miserable job.
In the book, one of the characters was in a situation from which it looked like there was no escape. He needed to get to another part of the sub and the access tunnel was blocked by something ominous. (The details are as murky as the depths of the ocean after all these years.) He was nearly in a state of panic until he remembered something he had learned from a mentor: you always have another option. He put on a suit and went around the outside of the sub to reach his destination. I believe this option was only slightly less perilous than staying put and waiting for certain death.
You always have another option. Always. No exception. In every situation you can possibly conceive, there is more than one option for action you can take. You may not always have a better option, but you always have another option. When I feel like I am stuck in a situation, or that I am forced into an option I don't want to take, I remember that I always have another option. I think about what my options are and I choose the best course of action or, depending on the situation, the course of action that is the least bad.
Thinking this way keeps me from feeling hopeless even in the worst of situations. It empowers me to take action and to feel good about the choice I have made. The one option I never choose is to let myself wallow in self-pity while things fall apart around me.
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