Life Scripts I
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- Parent Category: Persönliches Wachstum
- Category: Persönliches Wachstum
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All people use life scripts, which are rules for behavior formed from our earliest years of life which affect our behaviour and hence our success or failure for the rest of our lives. These Transactional Analysis Life Scripts are basically our bedrock initial belief system, and from our beliefs flow our attitudes.
Our attitudes in turn determine our behaviours. An awareness of our own and other people’s life scripts can help us to achieve substantial improvement in our circumstances. So-called "knee-jerk" reactions would have a basis in these beliefs.
The conflict of initiative vs feelings of guilt has been found to stem from between the ages of 3 to 6 years according to Erikson’s Stages of development, when the major challenge is learning to act in a socially responsible manner. This is when the child is learning to enjoy its locomotor powers, and is testing the boundaries of authority. Excessive guilt can lead to undue inhibition and fear of failure, which afflicts us all to some degree.
This is perhaps due to an overemphasis in “getting things right” at school and not stressing that making errors is the best way, indeed almost the only way, to progress, as long as we learn from the errors. This requires facing errors in a mature way and analysing the reasons for the failure and how to avoid it in future. The easiest way not to make any errors is to do nothing and many executives actually inhibit initiative through their attitude to resulting errors.
An executive who is aware of this who wishes to encourage initiative should not discourage errors, but should rather emphasize the importance of picking them up quickly, admitting them and correcting them.
Being comfortable with one’s errors and admitting them is a sign of maturity and also means that one is more comfortable with oneself. Being comfortable with oneself underlies the ability to be tolerant. Intolerance is inextricably linked with inhibition and risk-taking. On the other side are tolerance, flexibility and initiative. Good management should encourage initiative, and hence should be accepting of errors honestly made in an effort to improve, Eisenhower was understanding of Patton’s error in driving to Palermo instead of seizing Messina as soon as possible during the invasion of Sicily. This enabled the bulk of the German forces to evade capture and was driven by ego.
As long as Patton learnt from the error, he was too good a general not to be used in the invasion of France itself. This acceptance of sometimes bonehead blunders has distinguished many of the best military and political leaders. Many of our best businessmen have also recognized this. Conversely, the intolerance of error and initiative was ultimately largely responsible for Germany’s defeat in WWII.
