Are You Proud of Yourself Tomorrow?

So many questions in people's minds right now...

What should I do?

Should I say this?

Should I write that?

How does our messaging change? Advertising?

What will people think if I...?

Is it wrong to focus on my personal development at a time like this?

In many ways...the virus changes everything. Yet, the virus changes nothing.

Here's what is (should be) constant and never-changing...YOU. Your values. Who you are at your core. 

Strategies? Yes. For many strategies are shifting and changing. At least for now. And possibly forever. But strategies always do shift and change as needed. So that's not really new either.

Many circumstances are out of our immediate control. But who we are remains 100% in our control. 

Will you look back a year from now and be proud of who you were during this crisis?

Will you be proud of your behavior - how you treated yourself and others?

If you look around...even amongst all the craziness people are still doing their thing. They are bringing their practiced (and therefore wired-in) emotions to the situation.

You're seeing a microcosm of their life. You're seeing what they're made of, masks off.

• Angry people are getting angrier.
• Sad people are getting sadder.
• Excited people are getting more excited.
• Helpful people are getting more helpful.
• Hopeful people are getting more hopeful.
• Resourceful people are getting more resourceful.
• Irritated people are getting more irritated.
• Creative people are getting more creative.
• Overwhelmed people are getting more overwhelmed.
• Worried people are getting more worried.
• Stubborn people are getting ever more stubborn.

This is a snapshot of life - how individuals act and react.

People are showing you their emotional home plate, the place (emotionally) they know best. Why? It's comforting, familiar. And it's just what they know. People cling to their emotional home plate even tighter in an emergency. Emotions are amplified.

What is your emotional home plate? What emotional habits have you seen amplified in yourself lately? Are they patterns you want?

It's totally a choice to decide how you will respond emotionally to this or any other crisis or challenge. 

Are your emotions and actions (what you focus on, what you talk about, how you talk about it, how you spend your time) in total alignment with who you are and want to be?? If yes - great! If no - choose differently. Like, right now.

If you normally spend time on your personal development, why would you change that now? Why would it all of a sudden be "wrong?"  If you normally say this or write that, why would that be different now? If your normal message is to "use time wisely," why would you say something different now? If you valued education before, why not value it now? Just because the tactic changes (virtual classrooms versus physical ones), doesn't mean you somehow value education less. If you value your health and fitness and can't go to the gym this week, does that mean you value your health & fitness less? Of course not. You change tactics - staying home is now the best way for you to value your health and the health of others. Find ways to workout at home.

Now is the time to keep your values intact and be exactly who you are. Be even more of who you are. Be YOU...amplified.

As for what people think. You will never please everyone. No matter which stance you take, someone will not like it. So give up the ghost. They are just amplifying their normal emotions when they respond to you. That's about them, not you, anyway. Leaders don't care about what others think; followers do. LEADERS care about if they are true to what they think is right or not. You're a leader.

Things will turn around. Your job is to still be standing when it does.

Get to work. Get creative. Do things differently. Do what you haven't done before. Do what you wouldn't before.

When this has washes through, will you be proud of who you were? 

If you're in a leadership role, it's certainly not the time to flake out or bury your head in the sand. 

Now is the time, more than ever, to be resourceful, creative. innovative and have your head in the game. The world needs your A-Game right now.

Check out my free workshop created to spur new thoughts, new ways of looking at things, and give you ideas for how to see things differently. It's a no-brainer. Click HERE for details.