Chapter 47- Feedbacks

             I believe giving and getting feedback is important. However, feedback should neither be positive nor negative, but instead be constructive. It’s easy to pick one person’s faults and errors, but is there a way they can improve and how to do it? Giving positive is very good, but does it give room for improvement?

            I personally like constructive feedback because I get to know the truth, but also get ways to change if need be. In my opinion, a critic may be one of the most negative people. Unless one is actually the subject matter expert, one technically has no right or knowledge to critic someone. Not all critics are bad in general. There are people who are good critics by giving constructive feedback.

           

            Going to my work environment, the boss who picks on me does not give good constructive feedback. His feedback is vague, indirect, and negative. As a result, the message he wants to portray is lost in the process. I guess it’s a part of miscommunication or maybe not.

            Another example is the feedback I get from my stories and artwork. I get a variation of feedback from different people. Some positive, some negative, and some constructive. Whatever it is, it’s still good to have feedback so I have a sense of going to the right direction.

            One should know that feedbacks are truly one’s own personal opinion and it is up to the receiver to take it and absorb it. If you feel strongly about something or a point, there is no need to sway just to please them. You can’t please everyone, but you can at least make yourself happy. It is that control you have over other people’s feedbacks that affects how you react.

Chapter 44- The Real War

             If anyone has fought in a war before that’s not in the gaming world, you will know how different things are from video games. People would react differently knowing that you realize the importance of life. Although I did not participate in a real war, I had a realistic environment using paintballs.

            From that experience, you have no heads up display, one life, no respawns, and an environment that changes all the time. I think the scary part is that there were professional paintballers there playing. You know you are under fire, but you can’t see where they are shooting from. Also, when you are being hunted down, your brain automatically goes to survival mode as you try to find way to protect yourself. There were times I felt my adrenaline pumping as I was going through open fields and clearing corners.

            After that paintball war experience, I never look at a video game the same way again. War is not what you see inside video games, it is much more intense with constant change in the environment. There is no predictability for what your enemies’ moves are. There is only preparedness and strategic planning to minimize the threat.

            From the people who served in the war, I now understand how hard it is. For the veterans from past wars, I give my appreciation for you fighting for us so that we would not have to fight again. Also, from this experience, I now understand that each and every part of your life is very important and that we should truly value it.

Chapter 42- Postive Reaction

          I am a believer of positive environment promoting positive personalities. I think that in any environment, whether it is working, volunteering, or learning, if the environment is healthy, safe, and positive atmosphere, the results would be outstanding. Good mood creates good results. Bad mood creates poor results. It is the simple action reaction cycle.

            Positive environment promotes efficiency because the person is feeling good. A good example would be my work. My boss who likes to pick on me would say that I did something wrong or inefficient and continue it non-stop. The more he picks on me, the less morale I have because simple because the environment was so hostile. Occasionally at work, my boss would be replaced by a female supervisor and my daily potential would remain at a high. Reason? This supervisor gives encouragement, praise, and constructive feedback to me when she’s in charge of the day. As a result, my morale is high and I become error-free during work. This becomes a positive cycle because she created a positive environment, I was able to reach my potential and get more positive encouragement back.

            From this experience, I implement this cycle when I take on a leadership role. In my gaming group, I create a positive and friendly environment so that all the members would be happy and more productive within the group. As a leader, I rarely have members that disobey and cause problems mainly because I give them a lot of free space and cut them some slack. We are all there to socialize and to have fun. Occasionally I would have to remind others of their tasks and responsibilities and there would be no problem as we know each other’s limits, capabilities, and norms.

            In my opinion, I think everyone should do the positive cycle because morale is high, efficiency is high, and satisfaction with work would be high. It is like the term said to leaders that they lead by example. Like attracts like, period.

Chapter 41- Adapt to Change

             In the world that we live in, change is constantly occurring. Most of the changes affects our daily norms or just push us out of the comfort zone. Most of the times, we just have to adapt to survive in this harsh environment.

            One example would be my work environment. It is a fast-paced and hostile environment. Going to work without my body armor proved to be deadly for me. After a few weeks, I had to adapt to the environment to survive. I would put on my body armor before work and take it off after work. The first few days were hard to adjust, but after a continuous pattern, I’ve established it as a norm. I think this adaptation is good for my own mental and physical health as well as having a job. It may not seem like a good job, but it’s a stepping stone to my career.

            Another change that I had to adapt was the time when I resumed leadership position in my gaming group. There was a new chatting system and a new website for doing our business. Although I was unfamiliar with the system for the chat and the website, I adapted to the change and went along with it. This change allowed our gaming group to be more active, social, and more fun. The easy accessibility of that chat allowed us to know more about the other members and establish friendships.

            From my experience, change is constant. In order to thrive in this world, one must adapt and establish new norms. If we continue to stay within our comfort zone and don’t step out of it, we are behind and missing out of the potential opportunities. Take a leap of faith and walk forward to adapt to new changes as they occur in your life. It may seem like a bad choice in the beginning, but it’s worth it.