“A man who waits to believe in action before action is anything you like, but he is not a man of action. It is as if a tennis player before returning the ball stopped to think about his views on the physical and mental advantages of tennis. You must act as you breathe.” -- Georges Clemenceau. Is it true that acting quickly and instinctively is the best response to a crisis? Or are there times when an urgent situation requires a more careful consideration and a slower response?

 She was packing her suitcase. It was a well planned packing that she was doing. Her dresses were neatly ironed and folded. There was no rummaging, no digging into a packed suitcase for a lost item – it wasn't one of those tedious rounds of packing that obfuscated you. Everything was perfect except, the time was 6.30 p.m. and the train to catch was at 7.00 p.m.  She was obfuscated – by herself.  Or at least, she had been. At 6.00 p.m. she was running late. But, just as always, she thought that everything would fall into place. So, at 6.30 p.m., she was humming a tune. Well the train station was only five miles away, but rush hour traffic could make the journey an hour long. At 6.00 p.m. she faced an emergency. Did she take time to think or was she following her instincts?

She was doing what she was accustomed to do; wait for the puzzle pieces to be blown into place the wind. She didn't know how to act; or rather, whether or not to act. In a way, instincts ruled her mind and instincts aren't always the right keys to the lock.

Your instincts may not always be as intelligent as you wish it to be. The Indian govt. recently found itself in a fix when mass protests broke out in the country over a brutal gang rape.  Their guts told them, “Stop the crowd!”  So, stop the crowd they did. That crowd complied, but a bigger and angrier one came back. This time it stuffed so many more problems in the govt.’s mouth. The media too began to pull a hair here, a leg there – anything it could get hold of.  The govt. was turned into a treacherous villain overnight.  A villain that had to be slain. Their ‘instincts’, now, backed out and ‘thought’ captured the spotlight. Then ‘thought’ didn't budge from there. They weren't being able to translate it into action. Too much thinking, at this hour, wasn't helping. They were seemingly failing to resolve a common crisis in a democracy.

It is when ‘instinct’ and ‘thought’ co-sign the contract that the business can flourish. Think, but think fast. Follow your instincts but not without thought. The wiring around the main switch in the house short-circuited.  It is dead of the night and all the appliances have blown-off. A fire has started and there is plenty of inflammable material in the immediate surroundings. What would you do? Seeing that it is pitch black and that it is a fire you must tackle, your instincts will tell you to dash for the bucket in the bathroom. Your instinct isn't aware that water and electricity have been the most extreme of enemies ever since their co-existence began. It can’t put two and two together. It is your thought that must warn you. Your thought, if it isn't asleep, will direct you to sand in the garden or a blanket in the closet. It shows you what is wiser.

But even to lead you to the bathroom, your instincts must be energetic. That, however, will not be the case unless you are proactive. A patient at the operating table is having a seizure.  Slow instincts can, in this case, be fatal. Inactive instincts coupled with ‘thought’ in a coma, is undoubtedly damaging. It can throw a person into a dilemma too dark and deep to come out of.  It is like waking up suddenly and finding yourself in the middle of a thicket with overgrown vegetation.

Just as an untidy handwriting daily will not, magically, result in exemplary calligraphy in the examination, will not be able to run from an approaching snake. Getting the right concoction of instinct and thought needs practice. Rome was not built in a day and a badly brewed potion didn't make the Halloween Town witch famous.