16. COVID 19 Special - Get Fit for the Future - Part 0

Your ability to react to the dramas of life. Fears, the ups, the downs, the scary news on TV is all dependent on perspective. Manage your perspective, you manage your emotions and you manage to have a healthy well balanced life.   

As I look back over my life realise that for better or worse, I dont get too hung up with wins and losses. Now I use the word for better or worse because it can be a weakness and strength. A weakness because it means I don't get the benefit of feeling the pain enough to learn sometimes but a strength because it means I dont can move on pretty quickly and stay on an even keel. Whenever I lose a client or a job my view was always that 'some say you're fired, I say I'm up for a change of environment and pay rise' 

This is all about perspective. Your perspective is the way you see things.

Your ability to react to the dramas of life. Fears, the ups, the downs, the scary news on TV is all dependent on perspective. Manage your perspective, you manage your emotions and you manage to have a healthy well balanced life. 

We are living in strange times. We are living in scary and frightening times with news of death on TV increasing literally by the day the tune of hundreds. We are seeing our way of living challenged. We are seeing economies and governments we have always been able to rely on as bastions of stability shaken to the very core. We fear for ourselves, our families and the our individual and collective freedoms.

These times lead to fear. They lead to panic. They lead to emotional upheaval. They lead to a loss of peace of mind which can lead to a depressed state and negative outlook and before you know it you are in a negative spiral and a hopelessness that just drains you of energy and creativity. Creativity that brings about energy. Energy that brings about activity and activity that brings hope.

This brings me back to that word we lack and can all do with a little bit of...perspective. You see, perspective is all about how you choose to see the world and what happens to you. Perspective isn't about ignoring the world around you. Its about reframing it. You see, a half glass cup is also a half full up. Both can be true.

So how do we change our perspective for the better 

1. Gain an understanding of what exactly is happening around you. To understand what is happening around you does a number of things but most importantly it allows you to see things for what they are and not live in  denial. It also allows you to understand what others are going through.
2. Process what is happening to you and to others. Put yourself in their shoes and empathise with them. If its you, its happening to, then deeply understand what has happened to you. I find stats useful in this case - if you can find them. They help you bring objectivity to the situation and 
3. Be thankful for your situation and understand this. There is always someone who wants what you have. The very life you live, someone out there is praying for it. The fact that you can listen to this podcast means you are alive and so you are better than the dead because you have life and when you have life, you have hope and hope is all we need because that means we have a shot at something better
4. Flip the script. What is beauty can come out of these ashes. What is the glass half full scenario? What are the opportunities that are available to you out of this situation. A chance to redefine yourself? A chance to develop? A chance to change career?  A chance for a blank slate?

Remember! 

Whatever you focus on increases.  When you focus on sorrow, you get sadder. When you focus on joy, you become infectiously joyous. When you bring life, people want to be around you. When you are happy, you get happier. 

We’re not hurt so much by what happens to us as by our perception of it.