Space between Stimulus and Response
Dictionary meaning of stimulus says-
1. Something causing or regarded as causing a response.
2. An agent, action, or condition that elicits or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response.
3. Something that incites or rouses to action; an incentive.
Dictionary meaning of response says-
1. The act of responding.
2. A reply or an answer.
3. A reaction, as that of an organism or a mechanism, to a specific stimulus
There is a general feeling that there is no space between stimulus and response. When something causes an action, a reaction to that stimulus follows suit immediately. I mean people often react fast in all situations. They think that it just happens, there is no freedom to think, there is no control to stem or thwart or in fact delay the reaction process. When Newton postulated his third law "Every single action has an equal and opposite reaction”, he probably forgot to specify the time constraints if at all there can exist, if this law is cogitated to be applied in different situations.
Lot of times, we think, we reacted pretty fast and hence had to suffer the bad grades. Probably if we had taken some time to react, the problem could have got solved in a different way. Stephen covey says that there is a definite space between stimulus and response.
A person who widens this space goes on to widen his freedom to think as well.2 or 3 sec is in fact a big space between stimulus and response even though it flies off in a jiffy. How many times we have seen Michael Schumacher beat his opponents within mille second difference. So this means that if we apply thought process for 2 or 3 seconds, we have created a definite space between stimulus and response and if the thought process is good enough, we end up getting better solutions to so called complicated problems.
The result is, we choose to react. We drive our thoughts in a specified path and eventually succeed in controlling the flow of thoughts (which usually travel @ the speed of light) and make it travel at a normal speed. We are trying to make a bulb function like a tube light. So next time you switch on a tube light in your house and it takes some time to glow, don’t get irritated, try to understand that the tube light is in fact trying to delay the gap between stimulus and response. Every single time the tube light succeeds in delaying the reaction, we are thinking otherwise.
Let's try and live a life like tube light which is definitely intelligent and is proving it daily, but since we people have a different perception about that, we don’t seem to get the correct meaning.
When you call somebody as tube light, remember that you are in fact praising them and not debauching them. Same is the case when somebody calls you so.
1. Something causing or regarded as causing a response.
2. An agent, action, or condition that elicits or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response.
3. Something that incites or rouses to action; an incentive.
Dictionary meaning of response says-
1. The act of responding.
2. A reply or an answer.
3. A reaction, as that of an organism or a mechanism, to a specific stimulus
There is a general feeling that there is no space between stimulus and response. When something causes an action, a reaction to that stimulus follows suit immediately. I mean people often react fast in all situations. They think that it just happens, there is no freedom to think, there is no control to stem or thwart or in fact delay the reaction process. When Newton postulated his third law "Every single action has an equal and opposite reaction”, he probably forgot to specify the time constraints if at all there can exist, if this law is cogitated to be applied in different situations.
Lot of times, we think, we reacted pretty fast and hence had to suffer the bad grades. Probably if we had taken some time to react, the problem could have got solved in a different way. Stephen covey says that there is a definite space between stimulus and response.
A person who widens this space goes on to widen his freedom to think as well.2 or 3 sec is in fact a big space between stimulus and response even though it flies off in a jiffy. How many times we have seen Michael Schumacher beat his opponents within mille second difference. So this means that if we apply thought process for 2 or 3 seconds, we have created a definite space between stimulus and response and if the thought process is good enough, we end up getting better solutions to so called complicated problems.
The result is, we choose to react. We drive our thoughts in a specified path and eventually succeed in controlling the flow of thoughts (which usually travel @ the speed of light) and make it travel at a normal speed. We are trying to make a bulb function like a tube light. So next time you switch on a tube light in your house and it takes some time to glow, don’t get irritated, try to understand that the tube light is in fact trying to delay the gap between stimulus and response. Every single time the tube light succeeds in delaying the reaction, we are thinking otherwise.
Let's try and live a life like tube light which is definitely intelligent and is proving it daily, but since we people have a different perception about that, we don’t seem to get the correct meaning.
When you call somebody as tube light, remember that you are in fact praising them and not debauching them. Same is the case when somebody calls you so.
posted by krishna kumar at 12:44 AM
3 Comments:
Am reading Stephen Covey's 8th habit.Thouhght i'll pen down a few "have to follow" stuff of his.
hmmm have u read the whole book7 habits?
Yes it is certainly healthy and desirable to create a gap, however small it may be, between stimulus and response. The next obvious question is how to insert that gap, in real time?
I have heard of one method (but haven't really tried it in trying circumstances, pun unintended) which is count one to ten when there is a stimulus and at the end of ten take a call on the possible response.
Cheers
Badri
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