One of the personal issues that cause us the most problems is the phenomenon of cyclical crises.
If you look back on your life, you will see that this situation has also happened to you.
Hence, the popular expression that “life is like an electrical switch, sometimes up, sometimes down”.
The more I live, and the more I deal with people and companies in training, the more I am convinced of the veracity of this statement.
Now, if this phenomenon happens cyclically, as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, professionals, directors, managers, or whatever your role in life, knowing how to manage your crises is fundamental to your success.
I often ask people who attend our Leadership Workshop, “what color is your parachute?”
Managing the crises that come our way essentially relies on three main factors:
Managing your emotional state
- Focusing on what you can do to resolve the situation
- Whenever possible, anticipate and plan for future crises
- If you can’t stop to take a deep breath and grab your emotional state immediately when the difficulty arises, you are likely to enter an “emotional block” and be unable to move forward or backward.
One of the techniques that can help us in this situation is to understand how the brain works in terms of thoughts.
Since most of the time, we can only consciously focus on one thought at a time, and since our thoughts are directly linked to the mood we are in at the moment, the trick here is to focus on what we can solve.
Stop, give two shouts, let off steam, and then ask yourself the following question:
What actions can I take right now to start moving toward getting out of this crisis?
Blaming others, situations, or whatever, will not add value to the way out of the crisis.
Focusing on things that are a given and that you can’t solve won’t help either.
As the saying goes, “what goes around comes around” or “there’s no use crying over spilled milk”.
So the only thing that makes sense is to focus immediately on what you can do to resolve the situation.
When faced with crises, many people spend their lives whining and crying about the issues they can’t solve.
This is one of the biggest problems in these situations.
One factor that separates a leader from the rest of the people is the ability to keep a cool head at the moment and immediately take decisive action to get your company, your life, or your family out of the crisis.
Finally, if crises are cyclical in our lives, and more and more around us are aware of them, anticipating and planning are critical to our well-being.
Stop for a moment and think:
- What situations can go wrong in my life?
- If I lose my job, what will I do?
- If I get sick, how will I deal with the situation?
In short, think about most of the things that can go wrong and then look for solutions in advance to solve them.
If you do this little exercise, you won’t be able to anticipate or predict everything.
But if you can predict even 20 to 30 percent, it is already a great relief in terms of the future.
When the crisis comes, you can say to yourself:
“I’ve seen you before, and now I know how to deal with you!”
Will it get easier?
Probably not.
But at least you are already on the right track to point out solutions to resolve the situation.
This week, stop for a while and think about all the things that can go wrong and what you can accomplish to solve or prevent them.
Also published on Medium.
