First: There will always be a Crisis

It’s a rare thing if everything is going smoothly in our lives or we are free of stress. Can you remember the last time it was like that for you?  Pretty hard isn’t it?

The fact is we are all lurching from one crisis to another…some are big and seem unendurable at the time while others are small and all pile up and create a great deal of disruption in our lives.

And while we may think it is only us that are going through this, the fact is everybody is going through their own crisis or series of crises all the time. And that includes celebrities, the wealthy, sports stars…nobody is exempt.

The approach the vast majority of people take when dealing with a crisis is avoidance. Yet trying to avoid the crisis is folly and unfortunately will never be successful. And even if they did they still wouldn’t be happy. It is a fact that the absence of negative experiences in our lives doesn’t contribute to the quality of our life. As human beings we actually need crises and challenges to grow and develop; they are critical in bringing forth the positives in our lives and ourselves. They contribute to our feelings of self worth and uplift our self-esteem when successfully overcome.

So ducking and weaving, sleeping in, taking a ‘sickie’ or hiding from what life throws at us isn’t the answer…in fact it contributes more to the problem.

If you start to think of a crisis in a different way and see it’s other face then the stress we feel when a crisis comes along and the way we behave toward it will be immensely different…and so will the outcome.

The Chinese word for crisis is actually made by combining two characters: crisis and opportunity. The relationship is symbiotic…you virtually can’t have one without the other. The Chinese understood thousands of years ago that the true nature of crisis is opportunity in disguise.

So shifting your perspective and viewing negative situations as essential for you will clear the path for you to truly fulfill your destiny.

Second: Endurance is the Key

When we are facing a crisis or challenge unless we have the courage to face it and endure it is unlikely we will get to see and experience the opportunity that is always contained within.

More often than not our emotion in the moment blinds us, we lose heart and give up - sometimes this happens just when the opportunity is about to be revealed to us.

By digging deep and enduring the sometimes unendurable; by confronting the fear, turmoil and chaos that surrounds us we are able to change our lives for the better, to grow and develop…to find what opportunities await us, to uplift our circumstances and move happily and healthily forward.

But how do we endure? There is no real secret yet we at The Mind Institute have a few guidelines that will prove useful…

1.     Take action – do everything you can to resolve the issue.

2.     Stop struggling – once you have done all there is to be done stop trying to correct the situation, stop panicking and worrying, face the fear and then just stand back and observe. In doing so we give ourselves a far better chance of actually detecting the new possibilities that will emerge. 

3.    Acknowledge your emotions – there is no point denying how you feel when tragedy strikes. Allow yourself to feel, work through it but don’t dwell on it any longer than necessary. Anchor yourself in the fact that this will pass and then determine when you should re-engage and take action again.

4.    Stand strong – while going through a crisis is difficult it is advisable to keep your own counsel and not overly display how you are feeling…especially to those who might have contributed to the situation. Call on the inner strength you have and stand your ground - the situation will surely pass.

5.     Act as someone else – a great technique is to shift out of your own life and imagine that you are actually someone else. By detaching and acting how your chosen persona would act in this situation provides incredible relief, confidence and freedom. By doing this you will view the challenge with different eyes and be less concerned about what people think and not dwell on the outcome. You will also be free to act upon a solution far faster and potentially more effectively. 

Third: Be Ready to Seize the Opportunity

It is a widely held truism that, “When one door closes, a window opens.” Yet why is it that so many opportunities that present themselves in our lives simply pass us by mostly undetected until it is too late…if at all? 

What makes a person truly great is knowing how to endure the endurable and suffer the insufferable but what makes one truly successful is to ‘see’ the opportunity that emerges and seize it at the optimal time.

To really see an opportunity means you need to be looking in the first place. Being embroiled in ‘fallout’ emotion, blame and self-defeatism will cloud your vision and stifle your growth. Alternatively being too active and working too hard to take advantage of everything that presents itself is akin to ‘grasping at straws’ and will also mean you come up empty handed.

There is a middle ground and a demeanor required that would put you in the best place to excel in your life.

We suggest that finding time in the aftermath to be 'still'. To sit quietly and contemplate what has happened and what lies ahead. To review the circumstances you now find yourself in. This will potentially create the optimal environment for you to turn the liabilities into assets, the negativity into positivity and the dark into light. Sometimes the best action to take is no action al all…then you allow the ‘angel of success’ to catch up with you and without a great deal of effort you reap the rewards.

posted 2010 Jul 20 by Glen Campbell