In 1949 Saab Motor Company changed the way automobile designers thought about cars. It was at that time that their engineers began to think about the safety from a “big picture perspective” and their Saab 92 was the first car built with a full body safety cage modeled after how airplanes were constructed.

For sure, safety was on engineer’s minds before and after then, but incremental improvements that included such items as padded dashboards, safety glass and head rests didn’t create a mindset of safety. American car companies got on board in 1966 after the US Department of Transportation was established with the mission of creating safer automobiles.

No one obviously thought about the importance of safety enough to escalate to a top priority although no one probably denied that we needed safer cars even back then. Hanging onto past ideas limits our thinking and runs the risk of our being laggards instead of innovators.

Thinking ahead is what helps us mitigate stress and create a more graceful and successful life and lifestyle.

Consider this activity for the next few minutes. What is a big picture perspective that is critical to success in your work? What are some actions that you can take that will move you closer to success and will minimize or eliminate some future stressor or frustration. Getting ahead of our challenges before they strike is another strategy in our resilience quiver.

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2017