Don't panic. Make a cup of tea.

I once heard that British soldiers are instructed to make a cup of tea if they are ever lost or stranded. When I first heard this, I laughed, but quickly realized what sage advice it is even in day to day life.


When I was seven or so, I walked back from the lake my dad was fishing at to the picnic grounds (100 feet away) where my mom was at. We had turned left coming around the hedges, so it seemed reasonable to my young mind to turn right going back, since it was the opposite direction. I wasn't exactly freaked out, but when it started taking a long time to get back to the picnic grounds, I ran. I ran as quickly as I could AWAY from where I was trying to go.

If I had known to stop as soon as I found myself lost, I might have seen our car in the parking lot, heard my friends yelling or their mothers laughing. I don't do this much anymore now that I know the importance of stopping and "making a cup of tea", but I constantly see grownups screwing things up from simple panic.

In the wild, stopping and making a cup of tea serves a few purposes.

1. You stop, keeping yourself from moving further away from where you want to be. 
2. You take inventory, making sure you have the things to make tea; fire, water and leaves.
3. You gather the things you don't have, even if the leaves are as humble as pine needles.

Once you are sitting there sipping your cup of tea, you will be in a better state of mind to determine the best course of action and will have a few moments to consider them. You also have heat and water, leaving only shelter and food remaining to sustain yourself.

In professional life, stopping and making a mental "cup of tea" does wonders as well, even if the process is only a few seconds long. A promising venture capitalist asks you a challenging question you have no offhand answer to?

1. Stop, keeping yourself from making a fool out of yourself. Simply saying "hmm... let me think about that a moment... and looking skyward" can give you up to 60 seconds worth of "STOP".
2. During that time, take inventory, and determine the information you have to answer the question. 
3. Gather that information, even if anecdotal, present it quickly and explain you can research more and get back to them if they like.

This gets you out of the panic situation, keeps you from looking like an idiot and gives you a open line of communication in the future. You are collected and ready to move on, but can converse for a bit on the information you've collected.


In father blogging, you've written a blog you know you can add more to, but have no idea what to add next and have a beautiful wife and wonderful son waiting for you to some to bed....

1. Stop.

Hey Little Man

This blog is for you. Hidden away in a place where you or your mom will absolutely find it should I pass, is a letter leading you to this blog. You are 14 months old as I write this and if you have have my journals, you've already read dozens of the letters I have been writing to you since fifteen years before you were born. This is a place I will talk candidly, where I will give you advice to follow when you are thirty or three.

Your grandfather, my dad, died when I was thirteen. As I have grown older, some of the things he taught me to keep me safe have saved my life. However, when I think that by 13 I had learned how to safely stick my finger in a light socket, neutralize acid burns, identify when something was about to explode, flirt, play mubleypeg, build a bolt bomb, drive a car, repair plumbing. I had heard stories about his best friend taking a head shot defending a hill in the Korean War, I knew he was taken from his mother when she was arrested for prostitution during the great depression.

These are not things I think I would have known if not for the fact that when I was 3, they gave him six months to live. With the limited time he had he made sure I knew as much as possible. The night he died, your Grandma was directing her first show, and I was taking my first girlfriend (a ravishingly intelligent (and busty) 7th grader) to opening night. I think he felt he could finally rest.

I think of my father every day of my life. For everything he gave me, I wish I had something like this.