The level of predictability in business (or life) is very low.
Or as the Yiddish saying goes, “Man plans, God laughs”.
Sometimes God’s sense of humor is rather dark. We can call this irony, or challenges, or history doing its thing.
I’m talking about events that shove you, unwillingly, from your Deep Work, Monk Mode, Flow State, TED Talk-embodying nirvana into pure panic.
Me, I mean. Not you, of course.
But just in case you can relate: If you got dropped from a helicopter onto a surfboard smack in the middle of a 50-foot wave, you’re either going to learn to surf or you’re going to scream your last confessions to a cold and emotionless crest. And no matter how badly you surf, as long as it gets you to shore, it’s not only more than ok, it’s potentially exactly what was called for.
Because sometimes the goal gets torn from your grasp and gets revised down a bit from “Change the world” to “Don’t drown”.
Again, I’m talking to myself.
58 days ago today some of the worst people on earth attacked my country, about 35 miles from where I live with my wife and children.
This is not a political post. It’s a leadership post.
One of the most difficult battles I have ever fought – with myself – was transcending the pure unmitigated stress of that situation in order to stabilize my family and ensure our safety. And like I said, we were relatively far away from the worst of it. I don’t need to recall what you’ve doubtless read about in the news. In that moment, the worst of what we had was incredible stress and uncertainty. Hundreds upon hundreds of our fellow Israelis were not so fortunate.
Just a little perspective.
The point of this post is that sometimes life reaches out to knock on your door with an unexpected delivery. Part of leadership is leadership of the self – developing the emotional flexibility to roll with the punches – to accept that the goal has changed, at least temporarily, from “conquer” to “don’t drown”.
To me the most important aspect of this has been to take care of myself physically and to nurture the most important relationships through the difficulty.
Because there will be an upswing – every valley comes packaged with a peak. Even if we can’t see it coming. And when we’re out of the valley, we need to have the most basic resources available – that is our wellness and physical energy, and the people that matter most.
That is leadership of the self – being able to adjust our behavior to a positive future state, rather than falling victim to the totally understandable emotional quaking as it is happening beneath our feet.
Did this resonate with you? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.
Join The Courageous Business Leader, our forum of like-minded business owners and executives seeking to learn and commit to principles of people-centered leadership and personal evolution.
