Have you ever seen people behave like headless chickens? I am pretty sure you can find them everywhere.
Headless chickens are the kinds of people who grab one little piece of unsubstantiated information and create a whole fake narrative around it. It is the micro version of fake news in the making.
Unfortunately there have been herds of headless chickens in my neighborhood this weekend. Sadly, they are defying logic and still running about on the street. You would think a headless chicken could not survive more than a few minutes, but the ones in my neighborhood are still miraculously clucking away after over 24 hours.
Sheesh!
But there are other kinds of headless chickens. These are the ones who run off half-cocked at every idea without a moment’s thought for past plans or common sense. These are the chickens who think, and I use that term very loosely, that if they do lots of stuff then they must be moving forward.
In reality panic in any form helps nothing. And actually panic in every form causes you to go slower towards your goal, if headless chickens have a goal beyond running about and wishing they could still squawk.
So the next time you get a fear-induced idea, and you feel the self righteousness rising in your breast, take a moment or an hour or a day and think about what you are about to do. Do you really want to say that? Do you really want to cause a wake of exasperation and frustration in your wake? Do you really want to alienate level-headed, smart people who could help you escape your state of self-induced fear?
Probably not.