“Sometimes, while people are moving towards a goal they have determined, they suddenly turn to a new goal that has nothing to do with this main goal. This unplanned target deviation behavior is named 'Pumper Pumper Syndrome', inspired by the fire pumps of old Istanbul (Dökmen, 2006).
People who carry the fire pumps on their backs to the fire place in the old Istanbul neighborhoods and help extinguish the fire are called 'pumper pipers'. ' it was said. While setting out on the road, the pumpers, whose main purpose was to extinguish the fire, would sometimes encounter another team heading in the same direction. According to the rules of courtesy, the team coming from behind should have followed the team in front by taking smaller steps. However, when the team behind got into a power struggle and tried to overtake the team in front, a fight broke out. They considered being the first team to arrive at the scene of the fire more important than fighting the fire, and would often physically fight the opposing team. The winning team from two groups attacking each other with belts would also have the right to take the pump of the losing team. Losing the ballot boxes was a disgrace, but winning was a proud event. However, when the winning team reached the fire scene with the pumps, which were considered as loot, they would realize that they had already forgotten the main purpose. It was too late to stop the fire now. ;
Just as water pumpers, whose main purpose is to extinguish fires, forget the main purpose by chasing the second purpose that suddenly appears on the road, we also forget our main goal many times in daily life. Because of the new targets we encounter while we are on the road, we take side roads and move away from our main goal. This often leads to a dysfunctional situation in human life.
One of the areas where we frequently experience Tulumbacı Syndrome is shopping malls. We have all gone to the store to buy a specific product that we really need, bought more than one product, and came home only to realize the time and money we have lost. While our initial goal was to buy the product we planned in advance, we forget the main purpose and return home without buying the main product, due to the side options we choose later. .
& nbsp; Most people who practice professions based on 'helping people', such as being a doctor, teacher, or psychologist, choose these professions for this purpose. While most of them initially aim to help people, after entering the sector, we can sometimes see that these people get carried away by side goals such as money, fame, popularity, and branding, and forget the goals they set in the beginning. In fact, they focused so much on side ways that they began to violate ethics in their profession in order to earn more, and instead of providing benefit to people, which is their main target, they started to harm people. However, in the beginning, no one would dare to harm other people for the sake of their own personal interests.
So far, we have focused on the dysfunctional effects of Tulumbacı Syndrome. However, choosing side roads to the main road is not always a harmful behavior. Üstün Dökmen, the namesake of Tulumbacı Syndrome, stated that there are situations when side roads are beneficial to the person when preferred. Our citizens who went to the Turkish republics in Asia to collect data for the thesis but became successful businessmen by entrepreneurship in those countries can be given as an example of this. We can also include in this class our friends who could not adopt the department they chose during the university selection period and decided to leave the department in the following years and focus on the field they are interested in as a hobby. In the end, choosing the side path saved them from pursuing a profession they did not want, and perhaps enabled them to enjoy doing their job.
Whether Tulumbacı Syndrome is functional or not for the person depends on the meaning of the main road and side roads for the person. Sometimes, after setting out for a specific goal, it may be necessary to take side roads in order to reach some new and necessary goals. In such cases, the route can be stretched.
In order to reduce the harmful effects of Tulumbacı Syndrome, we must divide our goals into two, upper and lower level. Our high-level goals may be more general and long-term. Being happy, improving the quality of life, providing continuous development, etc. like. Our lower level goals are They may be more specialized and larger in number than our high-level goals. Getting a promotion, spending time with our children, owning a house, etc.
When the person in first place in car races or athletics tournaments has an accident, the person in second place has 2 options; To ignore the race and help your friend or to take advantage of the opportunity to complete the race and come first. When choosing one of these options, it is very important what the person's main purpose is. Although the person's goal seems to be to finish the race, he or she may have a higher goal than this goal, such as 'increasing the quality of life'. And if he guesses that he finishes the race without caring about his friend and therefore his quality of life will decrease with the soul-searching that may occur, and he chooses to help his friend, he may prefer to be at peace by serving this higher goal and being first.
When we realize that we have deviated from the lower-level goal, we must first remind ourselves of our lower-level goal. Then we should remember our high-level goals that encompass these goals. And we shouldn't lose sight of the connection our lower-level goals actually have to the higher-level goal they serve.
We must review our basic goals and routes on our life map.
''The world will step aside and give way to the person who really knows where he is going.'' / Starr Jordan
As long as that's enough. Let's not forget the reason we set out before turning to other roads we encounter along the way.
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