Here Are 3 Strategies For Weathering The September Storm

Here Are 3 Strategies For Weathering The September Storm

Here Are 3 Strategies For Weathering The September Storm

Are you weathering the September storm?

Last week I talked about the range of emotions people feel as they send their kids back to school and return to the office. How do you tame those emotions? How do you run towards the roar?

Here are three coping strategies that will help you weather the storm.

3 STRATEGIES FOR WEATHERING THE STORM

You don’t have to be a person of faith to embrace the Serenity Prayer. It was written by the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, grant me the…
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference.

So let’s break this down into three steps you can take to weather the September storm and the storms that may follow.

I’m going to mix up the order a bit, but…

1. What is under your control?

Simple answer: It’s in how you start the morning or end the day.

One of the most problematic things we humans do to ourselves is offer negative feedback.

One thing we must start doing is stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves.

Have the courage to look at the people, things of value you have in your life, or that you want to accomplish today….then, at the end of the day, look at what you achieved!

Two things of note here:

  • There will always be more things to do than there are hours in a day, so choose the ones of value.
  • There will always be those people who think they know, maybe even tell us, what “shoulda-coulda-woulda” been done. Thank them for their thoughts and move on. There is no fix for these types.

Call it your Gratitude List. What was of value that you chose to honor and that you honored today?

There is a business rule here, though: if it is not in writing it does not exist.

This list must be written. Otherwise, we will not have to reference tomorrow as it will have troubles of its own.

2. What is out of your control?

Serenity is a fancy word that integrates peace, composure and calm.

Special note here: These are qualities that are never outside-in but always inside-out.

We can have peace, calmness, serenity, even when things are not going according to plan!

Trying to change things that are not under our control is as effective as trying to push ropes. The result is that people get the cart before the horse, which, by the way, only works when you are going downhill!

Identify some ways to vent, let off steam about these areas.

When I work with leaders, people impacted by crisis, or people experiencing grief, one of the first things they’re asked to do is write a letter to the person, business, or whomever they have caused their frustration.

There are two requirements to this letter, though.

  • They are to go to a quiet place, where no one can hear them and read it aloud.
  • They must burn or shred this letter. No one, and again I say no one, can read what has been written.

This allows the pressure to be released from within through a safe vent to talk with a trusted thinking partner about some tactics to address this stone in the shoe problem.

3. How can you nurture wisdom?

The easiest approach to this is to leverage a trusted thinking partner. This person will be your sounding board, your committed listener.

With this person, you can share ideas about whether or not there is anything you can do, anything you cannot do, and the ways to accept what is so consuming that it undermines your sense of well-being.

They’ll help you balance your concern, your caring for people and things, with the acceptance that some people do not value the same things we do in the same ways.

THE SEPTEMBER STORM IS A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR FINISHING WELL…

We’ve all faced challenges over the past two years, at work and in our personal lives. The road has been rocky. But I know it can be navigated.

I want to send you off with two thoughts:

Firstly, I would love to find an easy way to do this, sometimes I care when I see what I can help with, but I am not allowed to do anything. Maybe you know that feeling too?

Secondly, if you need a trusted thinking partner to work through this September storm so you can thrive, let’s talk.

Let’s talk about finishing well.

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Organizations across North America have been benefiting from FORTLOG’s Interpersonal Crisis Management, Coaching & Consulting services for over 30 years, counting on John to help shepherd them through their most challenging storms. Today, a growing number of workplaces benefit from John’s proven strategies, systems and speeches that focus on integrating core-value practices “not just policies and procedures''.

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