Being Calm
On panic, patience, and what Neil Armstrong’s heart rate can teach us about firing kilns
It might seem impossible, but attempting to remain calm while there is chaos all around could not only benefit yourself but also others around you and your work, even if at times you may need to fake calm until you make calm. You might even be at the point of having imposter syndrome while remaining calm, while others around you panic. Calm spreads just like panic, and if you are in a leadership role it might be far better to spread the calm around so you can react and make better decisions. Better decisions can mean being proactive rather than reactive. Rational rather than emotional. There is a possibility of projecting a false calm to delay proactive measures, coupled with the false hope that things will be fine when in fact they will not be. The skill is being able to distinguish between those different things in order to move forward and bring about the change you seek to make.
“Capcom later claimed the boys in mission control were turning blue when Armstrong announced he found a good spot. As for Armstrong, his heart was thumping 156 beats per minute according to bio-sensors. The fuel gauge read only 5.6% when the Eagle finally settled onto the floor of the Sea of Tranquility. Houston, relieved: “We copy you down, Eagle.” Armstrong, coolly: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” His heart was pounding. His fuel was nearly gone. His voice gave away none of it.” — NASA, “Wide Awake on the Sea of Tranquillity”
As the situation changes so do the problems we may need to solve. There is no way of knowing what might happen and we can only take so many precautions to have the opportunity to take a chance. We might even panic weighing the opportunity cost through counterfactuals in our heads as our bodies react emotionally. Such ideas and builds could freeze us from acting at all. We may need to train ourselves to trigger calm when we feel we are in such circumstances or scenarios. For me personally I tend to overreact when I feel I need to make a correction. Like rolling a car while swerving to miss a deer. In a split second you need to make a decision where simply calmly tapping the brakes could avoid the whole disaster by giving the deer time to cross, avoiding the collision, and allowing you to go on your way with your heart pounding in your chest but feeling lucky.
Remaining calm can also buy us time to test and see if the small changes we made will have the desired impact or not. This comes into play when firing a kiln. The going rule when firing is that you should allow one hour at least for a change to take place and to see the results before reacting and putting it back or moving anything else. Many times we are almost constantly asking what variables there might be and what in and about the process changed. Many times it is a skill to remain calm and wait for the results to come in. Personally I am still learning, as many times I tend to be impatient. This might cause me to make a few different changes which might be too many at a time. I can dig myself into some deep holes if allowed to continue. Many times I have had to talk myself out of digging.
One of the worst things one can do is to read the information wrong and continue in the wrong direction thinking you are correct. It is possible to go the wrong way correctly and calmly simply because you might lack knowledge or skill. Everything we do is practice. So if you do find yourself going down the wrong path, try not to have a false hope that things will be fine when there might be indicators saying they are not. Just as calmly as you walked down the wrong path at that time, you can calmly walk back to the known spot and make a better decision to choose a better way. No need to be that villain, projecting a false hope and sabotaging others to save only yourself. The world can be quite lonely if you come to believe you are the only one in it.
If I were living yesterday a second time: I would have waited the full hour before adjusting the kiln instead of making two changes in thirty minutes. Armstrong landed on 5.6% fuel because he stayed calm long enough to find the right spot. The kiln deserves the same patience.
Things I am grateful for: The ability to practice calm even when I am still learning it.
If I get to live to be 86, I might only have: 12,653 days left. A few of them will be spent in chaos. The ones that go best will be the ones where I stayed calm long enough to find the right spot to land.
Originally published at Creek Road Pottery
Connect with Creek Road Pottery LLC:
Website | Shop | Collectors Club | The Pin Tool Podcast | Instagram | Bluesky