Are You Spreading Fear or Hope?

If you’re following the news headlines it looks like things are absolutely terrible. Unemployment is starting to reach unprecedented highs, economic losses in stock exchanges and many people are lost about what to do next.

Sound familiar? So the question I want to ask is are you spreading fear or hope? I had a conversation with a client yesterday who had fallen into a panic loop. With the loss of income in business, learning how to work from home (with the entire family doing the same!) and trying to get used to this new routine, she was overwhelmed by fear.  

It is very easy to let fear take over. The news headlines are dominated by the negative headlines, job losses, drops in sales, uncertainty. This makes it easy for us to get caught up in this fear as well (I am always amazed how fast fear can spread). The challenge when fear takes over is that we find it hard to look for alternatives or other opportunities. Fear can also make us an unpleasant person to be around because of the negative filter that we put on everything.

We can choose to focus on the positives and look for the subtle benefits of our new situation. Imagine what it would be like if we started focusing on the positive side of this new normal. Here are a couple of things that you may notice:  

More quality time with your immediate family. I have been truly enjoying the time at home with my wife and kids. We have been able to do things that we’d normally not be able to. Playing basketball between school and meetings during the day, playing board games, making lunch (and eating together as a family) and our extended family Zoom baking competitions have provided wonderful new experiences. When things get back to normal I will miss them.

More Time to Think & Create. With the normal fast pace of life we often get stuck on mental autopilot. We go through the motions rushing from one place to the next and don’t have time to think. Now we do! We have time to think and create and dream about how we can do things in new ways. There are plenty of online courses that you can take to learn a new skill and from home (and skip if you don’t like it!)

More Time to Support Others. My neighbour next door bought their house 5 months ago. We have seen each other a few times but we had never really talked. About a month ago he knocked on the door and said he was just checking in as a friendly neighbour and asked if we needed anything. Wow, what a nice thing to do, in fact we now do the same thing every couple weeks. I think we all have good intentions of doing the same thing and supporting others, but sometimes we get too busy and we don’t take the time. Good news is now we can.

Later this month I will be launching my new Leadership Academy which is a 12 month online program that will enable leaders to access a number of courses and modules that include videos, downloadable resources and activity checklists that you can use to help navigate and stay effective as a leader. If you would like to find out more, please click here and we will reach out to you with more information.