“Getting Off The X”: A Lesson in the Value of Movement

Move and live, or freeze and die. How maintaining progress applies to life and business.

Backstory

A recent long road trip to visit a sick grandparent allowed time to listen to some Podcasts. My favorites? The ones focused on exciting people, telling interesting stories, that lead to reflective self-discovery.

This specific episode was about a CIA agent and their experiences. Being in a Warzone is intense. Death is around every corner, where a split second can mean the difference between life and death.

She spoke about kidnapping situations, human instinct, and the CIA training that conditions the Limbic system to respond appropriately under stress. When faced with a kidnapping situation, people will react in one of 3 predetermined ways, Fight, Flight, or Freeze. One of these conditions is deadly, while the other two offer a chance for survival. “Get Off The X” is the survival philosophy that underpins this training. Succinctly put, move and live, or freeze and die.

Getting Off The X

Now you might ask how this “Get Off the X” philosophy might apply to our benign existence, far away from warzones and kidnappers?

I often find myself analyzing business opportunities where Analysis Paralysis overrides the act of making a decision. Historical success tells me that my process is sound, yet here I am still “On the X” forever analyzing the multitudes of outcomes.

Driving, and listening to the agent explain this philosophy resonated, and in more subtle ways than just business context. While speaking about the importance of “Getting Off the X”, I also considered “What happens when the reality of the situation does not meet the analysis outcome? What happens when we move from one “dangerous” position and find ourselves in another?”

What I quickly realized was that “Getting Off The X” is not a binary position; it is a continuous process of assessment and action, where we need to pivot as the field of play changes consistently.

Many times, personally and professionally, I’ve likely under-performed or missed opportunities because I have not recognized the value of movement, or “Getting Off The X”.

Movement in Business

I have spent thousands of hours talking to customers about the implementation of Downhole Monitoring Solutions to improve their situational awareness while enhancing their ability to make faster decisions with increased confidence.

Whether you you’re a believer or not, the Oil and Gas Industry is moving toward the widespread adoption of Digital Oilfield Solutions. I ask the reader to seriously consider the Value or Return on Investment these technologies can deliver to company performance.

In the face of change many will freeze or find comfort in the status quo. There are a multitude of reasons why we find it hard to be decisive and uncertain of the next best step.

My advice? “Get Off the X”.

Conclusion

Movement and progress is critical, now more than ever.

Here at GEO PSI we strongly believe that technology will revolutionize an industry that in many ways is desperate to “Get Off The X”.

We are already a leader in providing downhole instrumentation that is paving the way to making digital oilfield solutions an accessible and essential piece of every completion.

Our downhole gauges are changing the way energy companies think about downhole data, and new technologies from our brilliant R&D team are making it possible to put gauges in wells never before thought possible.

We try as much as possible to push ourselves off the ‘X’. And by developing new and innovative technolgies we are enabling other companies to do the same.

We encourage you to take a look at some of our products on our website.

GEOP-Dual-VM-Downhole-Gauge-(Web)-GEO-PSI

And to contact us to speak to one of our sales staff about the potential benefits you could expect from real-time downhole monitoring in your well.

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