When you look at the statistics of those who have lost their lives to Coronavirus something becomes very clear. The vast majority of deaths have been of people who had an underlying health condition. They were already sick so they were more vulnerable to catching the virus and then less able to survive it.
We may not have control over our circumstances at the moment but, actually, did we ever? There have always been outside factors which have come along and challenged us in our lives. I certainly have!
When we feel threatened, as we do right now, our instinct is to focus on how we can survive. The primal brain leaps into action and it drives us to consume in vast amounts (which explains the panic buying, of course). We see what is going on around us and on the news and that amplifies the fear even further. There is another way, however. We have the opportunity to thrive.
We see a story unfold in two hours or so and it can inspire us. We can get great ideas from films as well as using them to detach from our own lives for a short while.
What is interesting to me in all the people I’ve coached over the years is that their most compelling goals are not about what they can do for themselves but what they can do for other people. Even those who want to be fitter or to grow a business or find the perfect life-partner are doing it because of the impact they can then have on others around them.
Have you ever stopped for a moment and contemplated the fantastic achievement it is to be you? To have been born (the odds of the unique combination of sperm and egg, of DNA combinations, which create you are something like 400 trillion to one), to have grown into who you are today, to have survived the challenges life has thrown at you… You have to admit, it is pretty incredible.
The fixed mindset, as the name suggest is all about staying in the same place. Sometimes it is conscious: ‘I’ve never been good at Maths so I may as well not bother.’ More often, it is unconscious – driven by the example of everyone around us and wanting to fit in, or led by the primal brain trying to keep us from getting outside our comfort zone.
Over the years, this drive has been given many names: a calling, ‘Syntropy,’ purpose, the meaning of life… to name but a few.
We all need to achieve. We want to grow. We love a challenge and the sense of success when we overcome the challenge and come through to the other side.
