Rewiring Yourself
One of our hosts recently told us the most engaging story about how they lost their hearing! They were in the military as a cargo driver (although I feel like there was a more specific title).
They said there was this drill that they absolutely hated, where they would simulate the truck rolling over and pulling their gunner in during the tumble. They said they had to do it over and over again.
He said one day he got out to check on the truck, and as he was getting back in, just before his noise-canceling headphones met his ears, there was a white flash and he doesn’t remember the immediate moments after.
But here’s the thing! Somehow, between the flash and three rolls, he and his comrade were able to pull their gunner and friend back in, saving her life!
Sounds instinctual, doesn’t it? Sounds to me like it had become automatic. These are the results of the military’s use of operant conditioning. No, I’m not being conspiratorial. No, I’m not saying this is a bad practice. This is likely what saved his partner’s life.
One of the first things I learned about when I started studying behaviorism, was the military's implementation of certain techniques to increase the likelihood that those who are drafted or sign up, shoot to kill, when shooting.
But this is a really ingenious use of it! Apparently, the military practices this with rollover simulators that spin Humvee-type vehicles while soldiers execute exactly what they would in real life. Instructors give immediate feedback so the correct actions stick. Soldiers repeat the drill multiple times under realistic conditions until the responses become reflexive. They experience positive reinforcement when they execute correctly, negative reinforcement when they make mistakes, and sometimes even variable schedules of reinforcement.
Operant conditioning works by linking a stimulus, a behavior, and a consequence. In this case, the stimulus is the rolling vehicle, the behavior is grabbing and securing the gunner, and the consequence is either reinforcement from success or correction from failure. Repeat it enough times and the body reacts before the brain even thinks about it. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, fixed or variable ratio schedules all burn those neural pathways deeper, shaping behaviors so they become automatic, even under chaos.
BUT GUYS! We can use this in our own lives! Repetition and conscious practice can create automatic responses that strengthen our relationships, resilience, and pursuit of goals.
We’re talkin’, luvin’ people harder, faster, and more sure footedly, because of how we shape our own responses consistently over time. And although we could certainly be more meticulous in practice, I think we’ve been somewhat successful about what we’ve done with ourselves!
It’s interesting to watch some of our footage back and see our absolute indifference to people that are trying to offend us in some way on the side of the road. More than anything because, some of it has gotten so baked in that I’m not even registering it in the moment.
It’s as if we’re all coming up to each other with our own individual fairy tale books, each sure ours is the most important. We pride ourselves on knowing the titles of most other books in the library, while never knowing their contents.
So what if you can forget to learn how to read? Do you know how we as people typically respond? We’re far less likely to hate someone for not believing our fairy tale, if they don’t speak the language. We want them to learn to read first. We might even try to teach them.
You might think to yourself that it seems an impossible task to unlearn the fairy tales, and in some ways we never will in this life, but at least moment to moment we can detach from memory, opinion, and precondition, and meet people more ideologically naked here in the present. This actually harkens back to the centuries old Taoist idea of becoming the empty vessel or unhewn wood.
In a manner of speaking, if properly implemented, you can even condition yourself into a less conditioned, more open, present, and loving person with the right kinds of activities and reinforcement.
In other words, whatever your current disposition, rest assured that you can ingrain better reactions, habits, and perspectives. You’re always only steps away from a brighter future.
