Under Stress, The Opportunity Is "To Do What Really Matters!"

Typically when we get scared, we constrict, tighten up, hunker down, we lower our sights to focus on the short term, the little things. Survival.  The more productive action is to become aware of and adapt to the new situation on purpose.  Consciously and intentionally relax, look up, breathe in the scents and smells of the world around you and expand your vision bigger so you can thrive!  Become a builder, a leader, an innovator.  Even while you pay attention and act on the little things, you can also look broader, sniff around - see the new resources and opportunity that a fresh market provides. It’s like a weather change.  Life still happens, it just happens different. Right now I hear people telling us to start looking at budgets, to hold back on expenses, to examine your resources, consider discounting and making different deals.  I agree. It’s always smart to be good at business, with a caveat: Don’t do it from a place of fear energy. ➢   Do change your mind. Do it from a mental space of joy in discovery of what is new!  Joyful energy attracts different ideas, resources and opportunity.  Do it from the place of curiosity and enthusiasm, like a bloodhound on a new trail.  Do it because some new critters just showed up that you need to sniff out and find out about.  It’s fun! ➢   Do it simply as good business.  Your financial world should always reflect intelligent money management.  Do it because you see an opportunity to get sharp and in tune with today's financial market.  Do it because you can…you are adaptable, nimble and capable and it is exciting to check out the new territory. ➢   Do it from a place of expansion and listening.  What opportunities are out there?  What previously unseen resources could you gather now that the market is fresh, different, open to new thinking? The sleuthing you do in the market, especially around what others are doing, will show you gaps that can yield new marketing ideas, new service methods, new vistas.  When you find opportunities you don't want to take advantage of, share the idea with someone else who could? Be a resource to others. ➢  Do it because it matters!  It matters to you, your family and our collective future as a species.  Think about it this way.  You are an entrepreneur in the country that is still the leader in the free world.  That means you are a builder, a  leader of entrepreneurial innovation.  Think about that, and act with consideration for the role you play.  You are in a position to matter.  ➢    Think fast, and do it now, because now is a perfect time for you to decide to build a business that makes a difference for all our futures.  If you want to shift or refine your focus, now is a good time.  Yes, right now the market is in upheaval and people are looking for all new answers.  They are primed and ready to embrace new solutions that work.  Here is the key to long-term success in a fast changing market:  Yes, people may want short-term deals, and people dearly want long-term answers. So find a way to do both in your company, and they will act on the solutions you provide. The opportunity for dramatic change is here, so you might as well think big.  In times of uncertainty people want hope, they want vision and they want big answers. They will pay for them.  People have been deeply worried about the future, about our environmental situation, about the globalization of markets, shifts in our cultures and climate change.  They have been worried about their teenagers who are not graduating or are on medication or other drugs.  They have been worried about toxins, consumerism, excess consumption, loss of biodiversity.  They want solutions. They want new leaders with new ideas. The financial upheaval is a result and reflection of all that other worry.  In achievement coaching, we teach that we get what we envision with passion.  And we have been passionately envisioning some pretty miserable things.  So why be surprised that we created the current situation?  And why not proactively change the vision?  I mean our real vision?  Let's take responsibility for our future.  Why not take this opportunity to think outside our old short-term box and set our sights on building businesses that really matter to our big, collective long-term human vision? Why not help create a world we want, a world that works, a world that is vitally healthy and rich with humanity?   (If you want to link to an article I wrote on how to make this mental switch, you can read my Convert to Joy article on www.joythinks.com.)  I figure it this way.  If we have to modify and adapt anyway - Why not be useful?  Why not make a difference that really matters?  If you have to shift a bit anyway in your business, why not make a big shift?  A shift is a shift - it still takes work and planning and action.   Why not go green, go sustainble?  Then why not take it to the next level of restorative, regenerative, and revitalizing?  Why not go real?  You will be novel, you will be on trend, you will be doing something that matters, and you will be significant in a time where people want what is significant. They want relevancy. Besides, it is truly fun to be useful and you will feel better about everything around you. You will be desireable.  And the market likes that. Why not sniff out the possibilities of how you could do it all the way and become a part of the real solutions to problems that we have on the planet?  This kind of thinking achieves several things:  1.    It gets us out of the knee jerk reaction of survival and the doom and gloom of today.  It releases the negative attraction issue. 2.    It puts us into a new focal point, a new perspective that puts us into a calmer space of distance and timing.  It puts us into a space of attraction. 3.    It allows us to breathe deep and we can gain focus on what really matters to our core long term, and the current vector splatter that clutters the brain goes away. It leaves us in a listening space of resourcefulness and inspiration. You can do this alone, or with your staff and colleagues.  As we do this, we start to settle down, think clearer and with deliberate intention.   We start to think we matter, and we do. And this by itself is significant.  You are significant.  The fact that you are an entrepreneur in this space and time is significant.  That you are reading this article is significant.  Now, from this space we each can make better decisions that are congruent with our hearts.  The quality of our choices improves.  This saves time and money both short and long term, for the actions taken become solid and intentional.  This conserves energy and waste.  That matters. Do take this time to reassess and recalculate.  Take time to center and ground into your core.  When you do this, you can come out of the gate in this new market as a resource to the world around you.  And people want that.  They’ll want you and what you are selling, because you have assessed the market, and you know what matters and you have become the leader.  You took the time to put on the hat of the leader and to think like one. You thought first, and responded appropriately.  This means you have common sense and this gives hope and confidence to those around you. So do the reconnoiter.  Adapt and respond to what really is.  Do your homework…not from fear.  Do it from a true desire to be well, to contribute and provide real value to your clients, your staff, to the world around you. Focus on and intend to manage your business in a way that matters and find ways to make a real difference.  You can be a builder, an innovator, and a leader for the world you want to create.  I believe in you.  And you will succeed as a matter of course.  It is inevitable.  2008-10-01T15:38:19Z

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under-stress-the-opportunity-is-to-do-what-really-matters

2008-10-01T23:09:56Z

People pay for what matters because it matters. It is relevant to their life. The marketplace is asking for dramatic change. Your freedom as entrepreneurs is to find the answers and provide them.

Under Stress, The Opportunity Is "To Do What Really Matters!"

2009-02-24T09:46:17Z