In 2007 the global recession toppled dominoes around the world. Around the world we shared a common enemy, which was economic instability.
Flash forward a decade: Today global angst looks like a life-sized Lego puzzle. Divisiveness rules, mistrust abounds, and conclusion-jumping has leap-frogged a long assumed, more traditional respect for measured, fact-based, contemplative thought.
What’s a person to do?
Here are five things that might help:
- Choose to be an optimist, not a pessimist. Optimists see setbacks as temporary inconveniences. Their will to persevere remains steadfast. Pessimist see setbacks as validation, with their will to continue diminished.
Politics that shape a negative mindset too often swirl into a sour emotional vortex that treats its practitioners for more than they are — pro wrestlers in neckties and professional dress — so it helps to believe that the bad guys will get it in the end and the good guys will prevail.
How we see the world is based upon our core values and belief systems, both formed during our upbringing, and change after only based upon how we react to ensuing significant emotional events.
How we navigate the world, and the happiness and contentment that comes with those daily pursuits, depends largely on how we choose to see our lives: positively or negatively.
- If you believe that life should be lived by an implied doctrine of fairness, defend that belief and do so. Our self-image is determined by things that accurately describe what we believe to be true about ourselves. Our self-esteem is the compilation of conclusions that describe how we feel about ourselves.
Thoughts and feelings are different ingredients. Negative thoughts and deeds gain us nothing. I often remind people I coach that there are a lot of hurt people out there. None of us has too look to far to see one. Our choice is simple: We can pile on or help them up. Which to choose is obvious.
- Manage your head, especially what you choose to worry about. There are over a billion websites available through the Internet. Most people visit less than 90 per month. With such a narrow view of information sourcing, it is easy to get lost in your “go to” perspectives.
Dial into micromoments and macromoments in life that make you feel positive or negative. Foster the positives, cull the negatives.
You can do yourself no bigger favor than treating your head like a castle with a drawbridge. Lower it to sweep out the noise created by things your behaviors cannot control; and invite inside things you can. Then raise the drawbridge and protect your head. If you don’t protect your head, who will?
Coach people you care about to do this too. Far too many are unaware of the importance of disciplined mind management.
- Trust a broad-based array of contrasting news sources, rather than just a handful. Seek to read about both sides of a story, person, or situation from fact-based sources. There is an extraordinary different between talking heads and true reporting. Stick with the facts, dispense with the talking heads.
Take a global view of the news too. Don’t rely on just a few domestic sources. Expand your reading to include contrasting views, as much fact-based reporting as possible, and invest your time doing the work required to draw your own educated conclusions.
- Make stuff happen. Each of us gains a feeling of satisfied accomplishment from investing time in things that matter and pay back dividends, whether in the short-term or longer term. The busier we stay, the less time we have for “stinkin’ thinkin’.”
Idle time is wasted time. Invest as many minutes as possible each day into things that matter to you. Challenge yourself to end each day smarter than the day before. Wisdom accumulates, and wisdom comes from applying lessons learned through experience. The more stuff you make happen, the more wisdom you accumulate.
This is a most unusual holiday season, domestically and abroad. The best way to navigate it is to strengthen yourself first and then coach others.
Life is wonderful and each of us is empowered to be marvelously positive in the lives of others if and when we choose to be that way. Choose it and do it.
Best to all for a safe and happy holiday season.
Warm regards,
Ocean Palmer