Crisis exposes our real values. There are always two sets of values at work.
The values we tell ourselves – and others – in business. They’re the ones which are posted on the website and in brochures.
The other set are the values we’re actually living, shown by the day-timer and bank statement. Crisis intervention must respond to the reactions, not the event, as it requires examining the nature of the crisis.
Where you spend your time and your money are your real values. This reality is true for every business, organization, and person.
Are you prepared to run towards the roar?
The Hot Water-Teabag Effect
I call it the Hot -Water Teabag Effect – if you ever want to find out what is important to a person, organization, or business, put them in hot water.
What’s inside always leaks out.
The secret of the opportunity that crisis presents defines what is inside before so that what leaks out in hot water is what is of value – to you!
As a crisis intervention coach, I work with organizations, leaders, and people, teaching them the skills they need to be able to run towards the roar.
People who’ve lost their jobs have told me they could not even remember what their passion was but had traded their families for it.
To discover what you really want means facing the lion’s roar, which triggers the fear reactions of normal people. These fears could be people, things we’re told, past events, finances, but if we discover what is of a priority, then we do not react with fear.
Instead of reacting, running from the lion’s roar, which means we run right into the pride, the hunters…we must run towards the roar.
There is only one lion, one roar, not the whole pride, and there’s a lot to fear these days. There is no greater failure in life, than to succeed in a way that does not matter in the long run!
It’s time to embrace the PLAN©
P.
The P is for your Passion.
It is the fire in the bones of the things you care deeply for…it is something you want so badly it hurts.
Thus, add the prefix com to passion, we get compassion – that sense of being with someone that we feel their hurt. For true success, passion must be worded in the positive and yours alone.
Passion is the fuel for your values, which strengthens the motivation to fulfill your success and thrive.
To think about your Passion…
- If money was not the issue, and you could not fail – what would you do?
- When you get to the other end of life, you would love to know that in looking back that you made a difference in _____________?
- What are the things in this world that you care strongly about – the environment, serving the poor, animals…
L.
The L is for your Life Lessons.
It’s those things that have happened in your journey to this point. Things you’ve been told, including the ‘failures’, things which hold us back from stepping forward in faith again.
Life lessons can hinder and help. To identify your life lessons…
- Draw a teeter-totter for yourself to list out some of your Life Lessons.
- On one side, list the Life Lessons that hinder or trigger that fear reaction.
- On the other side, list the ones that encouraged you.
Humans usually remember the negative but forget the positives. We need to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves.
The African impala can leap a distance greater than 10 metres and jump at the height of over three metres. Yet, any zoo with a one-metre wall can keep them enclosed.
The reason? The impala will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will land. This is a core element of our own thinking. How many fences hold us back because we cannot see how things will work out or where we will land?
A.
The A is for your Abilities.
You and I know people who could not find their way with directions but put them in front of a crowd, and they love it while people love them.
Some people are so gifted in woodworking or mechanics, while others are so gifted at connecting with people.
The key is to stop working on your weakness, but play to your abilities. Get the right people around you who will get into your boat to row with you. Use your abilities by buffering with those who complement your skills and offer value to them!
The easiest way to do this is to ask others what they see in you as easy for you. Most of us think if I can do it, then anyone can. That is not true!
N.
The N is for your Nature.
Some call it personality, temperament, type, but it is that hardwired in us. It is the “how” you do things. Some want to know all the details and analyze them, while others do the ready, fire, aim approach.
Some make a list, and as they do things, they check them off. Others make a list and lose it. You know who you are! If natures and values are not clear, we can hire the wrong person.
The child that really hooks you, reflects you. In marriages, it is that opposite attracts theme. There are numerous tools for natures, but it trips us up when we do not understand our nature.
Many people’s values reflect their nature, and as a result, they do not have the right people “in the boat rowing with them”.
Crisis reveals what they honoured.
He who hesitates is lost…
On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the Dawn of Victory, sat down to wait, and waiting – died!
George W. Cecil (1891–1970) The American Magazine, March 1923, p. 87
The river journey to success will have many hazards along it.
To not prepare how to tackle these “river hazards” means we can be capsized, a hole be punched in the boat, get so alarmed that the boat gets pulled up onshore.
Worse yet, something can happen to you and the ones in your boat.
Reframing the struggle to leverage the opportunity crisis provides means the steeper the hill to climb, the greater the desire, the more worthy the goal.
As James shared,”’… when troubles come your way… when your loyalty is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”
So, let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Is there a better definition of success?
Your Values PLAN© is really about your loyalties.
Do you want to explore your values? Contact me. Let’s talk.
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