Feedback, feed forward

16th January 2021

As the man approached, Max, a three-year-old cross-bred backed away. His lips slowly raised, baring his teeth. The man edged closer. His hair started to bristle at his neck, smacked his lips and his tail hung low. He lowered his front keeping his back raised, getting ready to pounce. He was exhibiting all the signs that signaled, “Keep away! I do not like you close and will attack anytime!” Still, the man came closer. Finally, Max snarled and lunged at him, causing the man to fall backward.

Max had shown all the warning signs that he did not want the man to advance any closer. The man chose to ignore all the feedback that was given and thus, produced the inevitable result, provoking Max to attack.

Every day, we live our lives. One of the basic needs we have is growth. We grow when we are learning. We learn when we do something right. If we are smart, we repeat the actions, thought process, and produce the results that we so desire. Sometimes, we may not be aware of how that desired results are being produced and are not able to repeat our success. For example, you may have prepared a fantastic dish or written a moving poem once but find that you are not able to repeat it again. You know you can do it but did not know how.

We learn when we do something wrong. We learn that doing that, did not produce the desired results. If we were smart, we would take note, not repeat the actions, change our thought process, and try something different. We may not get it right the next time but we know that if we did exactly the same thing, we would get the same results. However, do we do that all the time? Have you met someone who keeps making the same mistakes over and over again? Perhaps, it is their choice of life partners, situations they seem to get themselves in, or simply their selection of words or thought processes that does not seem to serve them and result in them being in a perpetually worse situation. It could be someone you know. It could be you.

Let’s pretend it was you. Over time, you find yourself in similar unwanted situations repeatedly. You may say that no one taught you, no one showed you the way, there was no way you could have avoided the situation and the results would invariably be the same. Is that entirely true? Have you opened your mind, released your heart, and freed your eyes to your environment? Know that your environment is constantly giving you feedback if you are ready to receive them.

The world is excellent in returning feedback by showing you the results you are achieving. If you are on the track of being financially wealthy, the amount of financial wealth you are receiving is direct feedback on how successful your current methods are. If you want to be a kind person, simply look at the influence you have on all around you. If you are struggling to know if your current habits are serving you or disempowering you, ask yourself if you are leading the life you want to lead. Simply said, the world is extremely fair making sure everyone has the same amount of teaching, guidance, and support knowing whether they are on the right track or not in getting what they want from life. The feedback given to you is obvious and clear if you are looking out for it. Be sensitive to the changes that happen in your life. There is really no merit in thinking that ‘next time will be different’ if you keep thinking the same way and doing the same actions. That is the definition of insanity.

If you are unclear about what you want from life, you can also be sure that your feedback from life will also reflect that. You will be getting random results. Some good and some bad, the good may not be replicable and the bad appears to be perpetual. Life is indeed fair.

There are some that may know the idea of not repeating the very actions that would lead to the undesired results but find themselves doing that all over again and not seem to learn from it. They know what to do but do not do what they know. Do you know someone like that?

So, we are all blessed with a great teacher, no more, no less. We have access to a great resource that is cannot be bought yet it is not free. You do not pay money to this resource. The price is more valuable than money, it is time. Learn how to use this amazing and instructive resource called feedback. It is not provided by anyone or anything specifically and yet, it provided by everyone and everything. It may not be obvious to you and yet it is in plain sight. Learn how to look at your life and see how life treats you. It usually reflects on how you treat yourself. Be open to life’s feedback so you can move forward. Perhaps even change the word from ‘feedback’ to ‘feed-forward’ as its true purpose is to help you to move forward to new results, not back to similar undesirable results! There is no excuse for not having teachers in your life to tell you what is right or wrong. You can be your own teacher by learning to views the results you are receiving as guidance to how true are you living the life you want

Max had attacked the man as the man failed to receive his feedback, though he gave plenty. Is there something in your life you can change because you have had feedback on what the result might be if you continued on your current track of thinking and actions?

‘Positive feedback makes the strong grow stronger and the weak grow weaker.’ – Carl Shapiro

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