We certainly do live in challenging times.
Although nowhere near as challenging as what my parents had to face in 1939 in Hungary, at the start of World War II. And then the challenges they faced of landing here in Australia in July 1949 as refugees with nothing but two suitcases and not even an ability to speak English!
I am most grateful that my parents chose to come to Australia when they did. Who knows where I would be had they not done so?
Today, everywhere around us, we are surrounded by the dramas and drawbacks of lockdowns and restrictions and threatened risks to health.
And many people are fearful, full of panic, worried and even despairing.
But!
There is an alternative viewpoint available for you to adopt.
I have learnt, and taught in my seminars and executive coaching for many years, that it is not possible for you to have any experience that does not have BENEFITS and DRAWBACKS.
Let me give you two simple examples.
Firstly, just contemplate having children. Many mothers tell me this is the best thing that has ever happened to them: many, many drawbacks are apparent.
Secondly, contemplate winning $20 million in Tattslotto: I have a list of 28 drawbacks that accompanies such a win, that many people erroneously think will ‘solve all my problems’! No it won’t! I guarantee you will have many new problems that arise from the influx of so much wealth into your life.
So here’s the alternative viewpoint for you to adopt: I invite you to consider the benefits of today’s challenges, and then choose to focus your mind on those benefits.
When you focus on the benefits, you will be energized, empowered, excited, innovative, creative and ready to take on the drawbacks and attacking them with passion and glee.
What are these benefits?
I have a list of 34 presently. Here they are:
1. There is less traffic on the usually clogged roads of Melbourne
2. New supply chains of products will be developed: our reliance on China will reduce
3. There are less business meetings
4. There are less events to attend physically
5. I am saving money on petrol and parking and tolls on freeways by not attending events in person
6. New manufacturing will pop up in Australia, USA, and many other countries, to reduce reliance on China, creating new jobs in such countries
7. People will wake up more readily to the need to be healthier
8. I can now catch up on paperwork that has been accumulating in my office, to be done ‘sometime’! Now, it is ‘sometime’!!
9. I have time to reorganize my office to be more productive and effective
10. I have time to organize my home and complete some projects I have been postponing ad infinitum
11. It is much easier to attend online events than in person, and saves time
12. Online events are improving rapidly with the increased need to utilize them
13. Shareholders in Zoom have had massive increases in share price
14. Volatile share prices are great for share traders, who benefit from volatility
15. More free information and knowledge is available on the internet than previously
16. More discounts are available for products and services on the internet
17. Challenging times force us to develop new skills if we want to thrive and keep up
18. Petrol prices are cheap
19. R&D Grant applications to the Australian Government have been given an extension of 6 months to be lodged, thereby taking pressure off many participants in this Grant opportunity
20. Debt collectors will be less troublesome if they have been chasing you: you can truthfully tell them your sources of cash have dried up
21. Inappropriate Government responses to the crisis help us to get clearer views of Government behaviours
22. We will become aware of the benefits of not buying so much crap that we don’t need
23. We will understand more clearly that WE are the economy, rather than the economy being something separate to us
24. Less phone interruptions
25. We will be more grateful in the future, when the crisis is over, of fully-stocked supermarket shelves. We won’t take them for granted as much as we used to.
26. Children will be happier to go back to school: staying home all the time is boring
27. We will be more grateful for our work and our jobs.
28. We will be more grateful for the abundance of resources we have in our lives now, that enables us to cope with challenges and crises
29. We will create new habits as a consequence of many new raisings of awareness
30. We can learn new ways to use our time, particularly if we have been in isolation
31. We will learn to value our time more deeply
32. We will learn to value our freedom to move around more deeply
33. We will learn to value all of our freedoms, having had them curtailed
34. We will value physical human touch and hugs more deeply.
Isn’t that exciting?
I’m sure you have discovered different benefits.
Please share them with me, and I will collate them over the next week and share them in a subsequent Passion Point to Ponder.
In the meantime, be wise about choosing your levels of fear. My own levels are very low indeed. That is because I consciously choose my level. You, too, can choose!