The Magic is Within You
Is the magic really within us?
Every time that we are faced with a challenge in our lives (personal, family, professional), we only have two choices:
✅ To feel overwhelmed and paralyzed or
✅To feel that there is always an opportunity to overcome the challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic is a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) event. Although we are moving into a post-pandemic timeframe, some people are still experiencing the impact. Why? Because they have experienced significant loss and/or the VUCA storm is still happening in their mind.
When you experience VUCA, you face the unknown, and therefore you are NOT in control of the circumstances. This triggers a decision to move forward (or not) and you will likely feel some level of fear. Fear is created in our minds and causes us to either freeze, take flight or fight. This decision is where the magic happens. We just need to understand that fear is our friend, not our enemy. It is all in our mind.
You may be thinking, “wait a minute, how can fear be our friend?” Fear is telling you that you need to pay attention to something. Fear may be telling you to gather more information or perhaps to ask for help. It informs you, but shouldn’t stop you from taking action.
Most people associate VUCA with the outer world --- the things we have little to no control over such as economic conditions, political strife, the weather, pandemics, etc. All of these things relate to the unknown, which for most people creates some level of fear. What is it that we fear? The outcome – either a real outcome or one that we imagine.
Every outcome is influenced by how you have responded to an earlier event in your life. Therefore, you need to respond to negative events in ways that generate the desired outcomes. This is not how we are wired to respond. Instead, most people seek to avoid what they fear – they run away, react in a negative way, or hide.
Jack Canfield came up with a simple formula to explain this:
Events + Reaction = Outcome
Here’s the magic behind the formula…if you don’t like the outcomes, you are currently getting, change your response. It’s NOT THE EVENT…. it’s your REACTION (what you do) that impacts your current situation.
You may not control the external VUCA world, but you have COMPLETE control over your thoughts, perceptions, and feelings about it. You control your reaction (response). In other words, you control your mindset and behavior. How?
✅You control your thoughts. It is easy to get into a negative place when facing extreme change or adversity. You might feel sorry for yourself, you might think that nothing will ever work to fix the situation. When you find yourself in this place, reframe your thoughts into actions that you CAN take. What is something specific that you can do right now? Another technique is to distract yourself with a thought that makes you feel good --- perhaps something you are grateful for or think about something funny your kid or pet did recently. When you are in a more positive frame of mind, you will feel better and will be able to think more clearly.
✅You control your response. Under stress, most people react but they don’t necessarily do this in a productive or intelligent way…it is more likely a knee-jerk reaction, perhaps snapping at someone or another inappropriate emotional reaction. Instead, take a moment to breathe and think about how you react. You can choose your reaction. You can choose what to say and not say, for example.
✅You control your choices. This is along the same lines. You need to understand that you can choose how you perceive things and ultimately how you behave --- you choose your thoughts, and you choose how you act.
✅You control your ability to create change. You don’t need to be a victim of change and just let it happen to you. You can and should be proactive. This is a lot easier when you focus your energy on the things you can control and influence. Don’t waste your time with the things that concern you that you cannot control or influence --- you can’t do anything productive there and you will just get frustrated.
The magic to thrive is within you. Just believe and unleash it!