Creating A Feed-Forward System for Your Personal Development
Many of us live our lives based on the feedback that we receive from the situations, circumstances and people in our lives. While feedback is good as it helps us to make corrective changes, I’d like us to consider the power of feed-forward. The difference between feed-back and feed-forward is huge. Feed-back enables us to make changes based on the benefit of hind-sight. We went through the event or did something and now we can look back and make the changes we need to make. Feed-forward, on the other hand, enables us to make changes based on foresight. We anticipate what is going to happen and make changes that will enable us to thrive or succeed should anything happen that would go against our plans.
One great illustration of this is the operation of cruise control in a car. Cruise control enables a car to maintain steady road speed. With a feedback system, when an uphill stretch of road is encountered, the car slows down below the set speed. This speed error causes the engine throttle to be opened further, bringing the car back to its original speed. With a feed-forward system, on the other hand, the car would, in some way, ‘predict’ the slowing down due to the uphill stretch. For example it could measure the slope of the road and, upon encountering a hill, would open up the throttle by a certain amount, anticipating the extra load. The car does not have to slow down at all for the correction to come into play. That’s a big difference!
Think about your life. Would you prefer to have a system that allows you to continually develop yourself, without having to slow down every now and then in order to make corrections; or would you prefer a system that allows you to anticipate what is going to happen and make changes without having to slow down your development? Most people, I believe, would prefer one that allows them to develop themselves without having to slow down to make corrections. Go ahead and embrace feed-forward. Develop a system that will allow you to anticipate what will happen and prepare accordingly.
