For many it has been a tough and challenging year and some have experienced all kinds of difficulty in their lives. While it's natural to feel distressed and distraught, there is a stronger urge within all of us to bounce back and recover.
Resiliency and a strong self-belief go hand in hand. Regardless of the situation, when you believe in your ability to succeed, you will develop the courage and enthusiasm needed to stretch beyond any challenge.
No doubt when you think of the challenges of the past, you realise that it's not just about merely surviving, but about growing stronger and wiser as a result.
When you stay focused on your vision, challenges won't stop you they will only slow you down.
Today marks Barack Obama’s 100th day in office with his achievements measuring up to our expectations. He has planted and nourished seeds of optimism and already he is reaping “green shoots of growth” and “glimmers of hope”.
100 days is a good landmark measure for all of us. It’s approximately 3 months. Just as the farmer prepares for each season, so can we. The farmer is preparing to harvests and save his crops for winter. Is there a something that you would love to achieve in a season? What would you do in 100 days if you knew that you would be successful?
Barack Obama has transcended very real constraints in 100 days in an office described as the most powerful in the world. You too can achieve remarkable results in 100 days. Begin today, be specific about what you want to achieve and mark the calendar.
Often, it takes being backed into a corner to bring out the greatest weapon in the arsenal of our minds – our resourcefulness. Last week I was driving home from Dublin with my mother. It was only after we’d made our way onto the motorway (a stressful experience at the best of times) that I looked down and saw, to my horror, that in the middle of my fuel gauge a little red light was lit – I was about to run out of petrol and we were maybe as much as an hour from the next filling station. Panic began to set in: the cars around me seemed that little bit louder than before and the crash-barrier seemed to be speeding by that bit faster. I told my mother what was happening and right away she had ideas dancing off the tip of her tongue as to what we could do. She suddenly remembered where there hard-shoulders further ahead, thought of places where we could leave the motor-way and was able to suggest all kinds of places we were likely to find filling stations nearby.
We are at our creative best when challenged. In order to unleash the full potential of our ingenuity we must set ourselves challenges, make ourselves approach each problem on its own and solve it.
When we are faced with challenges we discover our resourcefulness.
Last year brought changes we didn’t expect. The media’s coverage of the economic climate has had its influence, leaving some of us feeling anxious, uneasy and uncertain. Many businesses are confused about how to progress and develop within these uncertain times.
But the truth is that there will always be something. People have got through tough times in the past; they did this by having the right mindset. We all have done things before that seemed impossible at the time. The mind is a powerful instrument. It can deliver literally anything that we want but right now it is focusing on what we don’t want, closures, failures, and crashes.
We need to turn our attention to what we do want because, when you begin think differently about what lies ahead, you will begin to organise yourself and resources so that you accelerate your achievement this year and beyond.
The first thing we have to do is learn to deal with change. We are used to so much change today. Change is everywhere. But we are slow to respond. Why? Because one of our greatest fears come from not knowing what lies ahead. Nobody knows what’s going to happen! Every economist is paid to have a different opinion about the future, but it’s not what happens that matters; it’s how we respond to it that counts.
Adaptability is the key, be open minded, consider alternatives, refine and alter your ways so that you avoid limiting your options.
Remember Darwin’s great words. "It's not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change."
I’m an admirer of Richard Branson I listen to what he says; he runs over 300 companies, I think he’s doing something right!
He says, that bigger companies will lay a lot of people off, and many of those people will become the entrepreneurs of the future, but it’s the smaller businesses that will get the economy up and running again - their cost base is less, they will find more effective ways of employing people than they have done in the past. Many small companies will fill in the gaps that the larger ones have created, however they must look for opportunities and there will be lots; they must be creative in both cutting costs and providing something new.
So it’s not the strongest businesses that will survive either, we see the big ones tumbling down; it’s the ones most adaptive to change that will capture the opportunities.