Mindset Tuning in Critical Times and Challenging Everyday Life
Kai-Owe Kuhlmann
Helping Visionary Leaders Make Themselves and Their Team Fit for the Future. Key Note Speaker & TED❌ Speaker-Coach, Author & Expert For Growth, Innovative Thinking, and Future Skills
At the end of a crisis, winners and losers always emerge. Corona is just one of many crises. During this full brake, the spread of disruptive technologies such as digitalization and artificial intelligence has gained massive momentum on the other side and spawned many new sales opportunities.
Business is not taking any notice! Either you have taken advantage of the changes and evolved, or you are lagging behind where others are already picking up speed.
Criteria for success: Ability to overcome uncertainties
The innovations needed to meet new challenges rarely come in clusters, but are the work of many individuals who bring curiosity, imagination and creativity to the table. The ability to overcome uncertainty, challenges and resistance are decisive criteria for success and fulfillment. This is especially true for the many sales people who are the vital bridge between business and customers every day.
And this requires a dynamic disruption mindset: We cannot control external developments, but we can consciously decide HOW to react to them - and welcome the opportunities of new technologies instead of mourning the old times. Rationality versus emotionality...
Decision making can be tricky
In a seminar we once had to make a decision in a team to buy a house. We did it very scientifically (with matrix and rankings and so on...) and voilà - there was a clear winner. Really? When I read the property description again, it was clear: I would definitely not buy this property. It was too close to a highway and the possible resulting noise pollution would be totally unacceptable.
Rational versus emotional decision. We had never included the "noise" criteria on the team, or any personal feelings. But the moment I turned off my rationale, it was suddenly clear that the "rational" decision felt wrong. Do you ever feel the same way and face a difficult decision?
Unconventional decision making by chance
Here's a (seemingly) unconventional idea for those who have this dilemma. If it’s buying a house, making an investment, changing jobs or moving in with your partner. Just flip a coin to speed up the decision! Ups?!
Now, you may be asking yourself in horror "What, I'm supposed to make my future dependent on a coin toss?". That's exactly what you should do. And if the coin suggests, for example, that you should get that $50,000 loan after all, feel how that feels in your body.
Intuition will lead you to the best answer
If you suddenly feel an uneasy feeling, this could be an important clue that your subconscious is telling you"hands off." This is due to biochemical processes that trigger stress, resulting in negative physical feelings. These symptoms are a signal that we also know as intuition or gut feeling.
As a basic rule, we can trust our intuition very well. Due to rational arguments, we just sometimes do not allow it. You have to be courageous!
By the way: I was not alone with rational decision making at that time. With my new premonitions (noise and so on) I was able to persuade my team immediately to choose the second, but quieter object alternative and suddenly a pleasant feeling of warmth flowed through my body…
The consequences of our decisions can sometimes be troublesome
OK, now we have made a decision that could move us forward. However, this might be accompanied by some situations and new tasks that sometimes do feel stressy. So what could we do not to regret our decision?
There is the fairy tale of the Frog Prince. A princess is playing at a fountain in the park of her parents' castle and her golden ball falls into the fountain and sinks. An ugly frog hears the princess crying and offers her his help - but only if she gives him a kiss in return...
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A whole army of frogs drives us into procrastination
Each of us has our own frog, actually a huge army of frogs. I'm talking about the many important but often unpleasant tasks we want and need to accomplish every day.
I think there are about 1 million things we should do sometimes and so don't feel like doing.
But what do we do on a regular basis?
We put off such tasks until the next day, then again until the next day and then again and in the end we do nothing at all....
Take on the frog and experience wondrous things
The American successful author and coach, Brain Tracey, has called this "kiss the frog".
Sit down right after getting up with a pen and paper, preferably with a good cup of coffee, and list the 3 to 5 things that absolutely have to be done.
Go through this list again mentally and ask yourself for each point: if I would only do this today, would I be satisfied with my day?
Now mark the most important of these points, which you have answered positively with the question you just asked.
Reserve in your calendar the time you estimate to need for the completion of this task.
If it can be done immediately, do it immediately.
That was your morning ritual. Problem solved, now the day can start!
The feeling of having done something unpleasant will immediately raise your mood. You're pleased with yourself, you're glad to have it behind you, and you may also be proud of yourself for having done it. Because success comes from doing, never from knowing. And you can make sure that you stay with your initial decision.
I wish you a wonderful day and the courage and strength to kiss off your unloved frogs one by one and enjoy the feeling of happiness that comes afterwards.
Surely you have also experienced some challenging times with your business. How did you deal with them, how did you cope? Would you have a good tip for my readers here? Great if you could put it in a short comment. I look forward to hearing from you and wish you much success and many enthusiastic customers!