Ideas to calm the overwhelm

Purpose is a multiplier of energy. To help you get clear on your purpose it sometimes helps to “define your enemy”.

It doesn’t have to be another company. It can be bad design.  It can be time wasting. It can be pollution. It can be ugliness. It can be bad service. It can be landfill. It can be complexity.

Pick your enemy well, as it will be your driver. This can become your purpose. Your fuel when you are tired out. Your reason to keep going when others call it a day. It will be why your customers prefer you over all the others. This is your purpose.  The thing that separates you from all the others.

Step 2: Make Space.

Make sure you take time as a team to help each other talk about how they are feeling.

When we talk together and practice generous listening and encouragement – we get stronger together.

The complexity and ambiguity of the world is very challenging. Nobody has done this before.  It is hard work.  We are all trying to navigate this world as best as we can. There is no need to be afraid of emotions – they are a critical piece of our intelligence and how we make sense of the world.

When we feel supported we can become empowered to change. The positive energy created through helpful acts can be so powerful, not only for individuals but for teams as well. It can also be contagious.

So, in a time where there is so much going on in our lives and in the world, a simple offer of help can have a huge impact.  If everyone helps somebody else get stuff done, especially in a team, and if everyone is receiving being helped, that team is likely to be much stronger, more resilient and more connected.

Take a look around, it could be a work colleague, a family member or even a total stranger, who can you offer to help today?

Water reflects our emotions, when you gaze across the sea at a beautiful sunset – what in you is being recharged, touched by what your senses pick up?

When you admire the majesty of a glorious mountain range – what in you is touched, inspired and re-charged by this relationship with nature?

When you sit around the open flame of a campfire – what in you is being stimulated, recharged, renewed?

Holding the hand of a child, marvelling at a flower, listening with a smile on your face to the sounds of birds singing.  All these simple acts recharge us.  They recharge the part of us that recognises, knows and sees beauty.  Some philosophers point to the soul.

There are a lot of wounds in our world due to certain words that we use, and the terrible ways that we have treated each other and the planet in the past.  We cannot avoid how terrible we have been as a race.  But when we can avoid taking ourselves too seriously, we can still take a deeper dive into the topic. Referencing Richard Rohr, in his book “Universal Christ” he points to Three Great Virtues.  Faith, Hope and Love.

“Each of these Three Great Virtues must always include the other two in order to be authentic: love is always hopeful and faithful, hope is always loving and faithful, and faith is always loving and hopeful.”

Each virtue is created by the other two. It is a very powerful image.

I believe that wherever these 3 virtues live within us – that place/space within is what we heal and recharge and renew.

My invitation to you is to pause, reflect, go a little deeper and feel for yourself when you are renewing, recharging – what part in you is getting recharged?  How can we all create teams where the 3 Great Virtues are authentically flowing between us?  If we did, how unstoppable might we become? If we did, how might this give us the energy we need to tackle the enormous challenges ahead of us all as we help to heal our relationships with the planet and bring life to teams together?