Psychological Resilience: An Important Skill For All Leaders - part #1

Introduction

During our busy days filled with all different sorts of meetings, problem solving opportunities, project management work, and various appointments with key people, I think leaders routinely forget something quite important, namely that over time every thing changes. Some years this is planned, and other years, it just happens whether we like it or not. But in the end, every thing changes. 

Most leaders struggle with this idea. They do not want to accept the basic truth that change happened in the past, it is happening in the present, and it will happen in the future. I believe we struggle and resist change, because if everything changes over time, then there will always be a constant level of uncertainty and unpredictability to the work that we do each day. 

Furthermore, most leaders just want some degree of order, control and predictability in their lives at work, and even at home. If every thing changes over time, then on a regular basis, everything is called into question. Even our own identity and self-definition of what it means to be a leader may be challenged if we accept that everything changes over time. Nevertheless, the truth of the matter is that everything does change over time, including ourselves. 

William Taylor in his book, Practically Radical: Not-so-crazy ways to transform your company, shake up your industry, and challenge yourself (William Morrow, 2011), writes about the “Five Truths of Corporate Transformation.” First, “Most organizations in most fields suffer from a kind of tunnel vision, which makes it hard to envision a more positive future.” Second, “Most leaders see things the same way everyone else sees them because they look for ideas in the same places everyone else looks for them.” Third, “In troubled organizations rich with tradition and success, history can be a curse - and a blessing…. The challenge is to break from the past without disavowing it.” Fourth, “The job of the change agent is not just to surface high-minded ideas…. It is to summon a sense of urgency inside and outside the organization, and to turn that urgency into action.” Fifth, “In a business environment that never stops changing, change agents can never stop learning.” Each of Taylor’s “Five Truths” is built on the understanding that change has moved from being an event to an ongoing process, i.e. it is constant, dynamic, and continual. 

Over the course of my 36+ year career, I have witnessed these five truths, and I have witnessed the rise of many trends within the world of organizational change. I was there when Total Quality Management (TQM) became a big thing. This was a management system for a customer-focused organization that involved all employees in a continual process of detecting, reducing, or eliminating errors in manufacturing, and then in all other types of organizations. Healthcare adopted TQM and then called it Continual Quality Improvement (CQI). This was a strategic and then operational choice to implement a defined process which was focused on activities that are responsive to community needs and improving population health. The next big thing after various forms of continual improvement was a focus on organizational efficiency, i.e. the ability to achieve an end goal with little to no waste of effort or energy. Here, participants focused on how effectively a company generated products and services related to the amount of time and money needed to produce them. In particular, leaders focused on how to help employees complete the right tasks correctly without wasting time and effort. Each of these trends had a major impact on how people worked and how companies operated. Now, as we emerge from three years of living and working within a global pandemic, the new trend is a focus on resiliency.

Resiliency Is The New Efficiency

In its most simplest form, resilience is the process and the outcome of successful adaptation to difficult or challenging experiences. Resilience reduces the impact of a crises by helping companies to prepare for, and cushion against shocks related to a crisis. This work is accomplished successfully by creating a more flexible workforce, succession planning, and disaster recovery efforts. Furthermore, when leaders trust and empower people to do their jobs, communicate clearly, and give employees the tools they need to do their job well, then people and the company as a whole is more resilient. In short, the goal is to build resilience and adaptability into the very fabric and culture of the company.

The choice to focus on resilience at this time period is based on two important points. First, there is an understanding that unpredictability and complexity is not going away. Second, there is an understanding that efficiency focuses on systems, and systems make everyone do things the same way each time. “The problem with systems is that they depersonalize and standardize everything,” write Karl Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe in their book,  Managing The Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2007). “And people do not, on one level, like to be standardized.” As the authors note “each person is unique” and “no system is perfect.” Thus, they explain that “The essence of resilience is therefore the intrinsic ability of an organization (or system) to maintain or regain a dynamically stable state, which allows it to continue operations after a major mishap and/or in the presence of a continuous stress [think the global pandemic]…. The hallmark of a resilient organization is not that it is error-free but that errors don’t disable it…. Resilience is a combination of keeping errors small and of improving workarounds that allow the system to keep functioning.” 

This strategic choice to focus on resilience more than efficiency reflects a high degree of clarity and understanding about how unprepared we were for what happened in March of 2021 when the world shut down due to the rise of COVID-19. Not a single leader I know wants to go through that experience one more time. Thus, they are now laser focused on being resilient given the constantly changing world we live in at this time period. 

The Evolution of Psychological Safety

When understanding this need for operational resilience, many leaders must also come to understand the importance of psychological safety. This term became more widely used after the publication of an article called “The Competitive Imperative of Learning” by Amy C. Edmondson in the July-August 2008 of the Harvard Business Review. Here, the author explored two different paradigms of working, namely “execution-as-efficiency” vs “execution-as-learning.” As she explained “ ... flawless execution cannot guarantee enduring success in a knowledge economy….A focus on getting things done, and done right, crowds out the experimentation and reflection vital to success.” Furthermore, she notes that “the managerial mind-set that enables efficient execution inhibits employee’s ability to learn and innovate.” 

One element of the execution-as-learning paradigm is the realization that “fear cripples the learning process… it inhibits experimentation, lowers awareness of options, and discourage people from sharing and analyzing insights, questions and problems.” Thus, Edmondson notes the importance of creating psychological safety in order to increase “collaboration and learning in the service of high-performance outcomes.”

Psychological safety, in basic terms, is defined as an environment that encourages, recognizes and rewards individuals for their contributions and ideas and for making other people feel safe when taking interpersonal risks. In this kind of environment, employees feel safe to be included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge status quo. In essence, there is the absence of interpersonal fear. 

During the initial emergency response phase to the global pandemic and then the resulting adaptive phase, people in leadership positions needed to meet the pressing day to day challenges of keeping the business up and running during the lockdown. At the same time, they began the long term work of adapting what and how things were to get done in order to thrive in the coming years. Therefore, they needed to confront legacy practices and eliminate the ones that were getting in the way of operating under extremely stressful times while also maintaining what was central to the organization’s identity and capacity to move forward strategically. 

From my vantage point as an executive coach and consultant during these very difficult times, these dual goals of adaptive leadership, namely tackling immediate operational challenges and building strategic adaptability, required leaders to evolve from focusing solely on psychological safety to embracing psychological resilience, i.e. the ability to mentally cope with and/or adapt to continual uncertainty, challenges, and adversity. In particular, those leaders, whom I witnessed, who were most successful during the global pandemic, learned how to accept and even anticipate change. This unique capacity was interconnected with their physical, mental, emotional, and social resilience, too. 

With this evolution from a focus on psychological safety to a focus on psychological resilience, built on a foundation of a psychological safe work environment, I am reminded of two quotes by Jim Collin and Morten T. Hansen in their book, Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (HarperCollins, 2011). First, as they wrote, “The ability to deal with a crisis situation is largely dependent on the structures that have been developed before chaos arrives.” Building on this notion, they continued, “... it’s what you do before the storm comes that most determines how well you’ll do when the storm comes. Those who fail to plan and prepare for instability, disruption, and chaos in advance tend to suffer more when their environments shift from stability to turbulence.” For me as an executive coach, the critical point in both of these quotes is that leaders need to build the mindset and skill set of being psychologically resilient before uncertainty happens rather than trying to do it during uncertain times. 

FYI: To be continued on Monday, October 2.

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Searching For A New Normal - part #2

Find Meaning In The Ordinary

I am a gardener, and have been for a very long time. My father was a landscape architect and site engineer. I grew up in a world of plants, flowers, and trees. As a result, being outside in nature is for me a fundamental element of healthy living, and directly connected to my sense of well being. Using one of my late father’s favorite old Quaker phrases, being outside in nature “speaks to my condition.”

As we, individually and collectively, seek a new normal, I believe we need to go back outside and rediscover the world in which we live. We need to put down our phones, tablets, and laptops, and choose to experience the beauty and awe within nature, reveling in the miraculous changes and elegance found within each season. For when we do this, we rediscover the complete simplicity and complexity of the natural world, and we have the potential to find meaning in the ordinary. 

One simple question surfaces during this post pandemic time period: Why did it happen? And this primary question leads to others which are just as important: Why did so many people die? Why did so many people suffer? Why are so many people still suffering? The answers are illusive, painful, and difficult. 

Yet, when visiting with a wiser and older friend, she shared with me an uncomfortable truth: “Why has no answer.” The pandemic happened. We experienced it, and we survived it. Many others did not. Seeking an answer to this why question, and many other related why questions, will not generate answers that will help us move forward. What we experienced, individually and collectively, was a defining experience. In essence, it was a source experience. 

“The source of knowledge is experience,” writes Albert Einstein. All knowledge comes from experiences that we have in our life. We learn from these experiences which in term shapes our decisions and our actions. In simple terms, our experiences are a form of knowledge as valid and important as anything we learned in school, in a book, or through a podcast. 

With this understanding and framework in mind, I return to the world of gardening and see it with a fresh perspective. I have nearly an acre of perennial flower beds growing around our home. I also take care of the other acres of land we own, making sure to maintain the fields and wooded acres in a responsible manner. 

I designed and created all these flower beds over many decades. I also have maintained them for many decades. Many people think that most of gardening is about buying new plants and planting them in various places. While this is a special experience, the majority of gardening is about doing the routine seasonal maintenance projects such as cleaning up the beds after winter, spreading mulch in the spring before the plants get too big, pulling weeds, and making sure the more aggressive but beautiful perennials do not take over.

This constant source of work involves lots of time down on one’s hands and knees. I often get the chance to see the whole world at the one foot to two foot high, plant level. Even with the best mulch, an area that has been weeded and cared for will more likely have to be cared for again in a couple of weeks. This continual revisiting of the beds at different times of the day and in different seasons and weather becomes part of the rhythm of gardening. It is a cycle that starts in the early spring and really does not end up long until after the first true snow fall. 

I do this level of work because it is good for my soul. I am drawn to it more than being driven by it. I want to do it nine times out of ten And as a result, I find it to be a meditative journey which results in inner peace, alignment, and perspective.

I also enjoy the outcome of this work, which is that lots and lots of people stop by throughout the growing season to witness the beauty and magnificence of blooming plants in and around our home. It makes people smile, laugh, and stand in awe. Whether it is the first crocus blooming in the spring, the majesty of a lupine reaching for the sky, or the divinity of a peony in full bloom, each uplifts the soul and generates joy as people walk or drive by our home. 

And in this special moment, I find meaning in the ordinary. If I can create the right growing environment for that particular crocus, lupine, or peony to achieve their fullest potential, to offer up their most incredible flowers at just the right moment when a person is walking their dog at dawn, a mother with a baby stroller who is trying to get a cranky little to go down for an afternoon nap, or a child is walking home after school, then the miracle of nature is experienced. Nature transforms that individual’s day into something special, a source experience that is positive, beautiful, and transformational. Then, my own mediative work of weeding and caring for all these plants is worth every minute, hours, and days of work. For at that moment in time, we, the gardener and the visitor, discover new meaning in a world where the why questions have not gone away, but they have all been put back into perspective. As the Buddha said, “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

Remember And Understand The Past

A while back I read a book by Timothy Egan called The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl (Mariner Books, 2006). It is a tour de force of history about the Dust Bowl that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest days of the Depression. I read this book, because my late mother-in-law grew up in southwest Kansas right in the middle of it all. For her, black dust blizzards, crop failures, and hardships were part of her story. And I wanted to better understand this story about one of the nation’s worst and prolonged environmental disaster. 

When I finished the book and as other family members were reading it, I encouraged her to read it too. A while later, myself and others sat down to discuss the book with her. 

“I couldn’t finish the book,” she told us. “It just wasn’t my story or my experience. Yes, there were hard times and black dust every where. Yes, people struggled mightily, but, as a child, I grew up right through it all. What I remember about the Depression and the Dust Bowl was making mud pies with my sisters, singing as a family, the joy of getting an orange and a new pencil for Christmas. I just remember living and being grateful for all the blessings we had.”

As I listened to her share what she remembered, I came to understand that we are not the first people to go through a tough time in life. Many have done this before us. But most of all, I came to understand that, from her perspective, it was not a hard life. It was just a time to keep moving forward and to celebrate what they had when they had it. 

On the days that I struggle, I remember my mother-in-law and then choose to put it all in perspective. On any given new day, just being together is the gift of this post pandemic time period. And being grateful for the blessings we have makes me focus forward.  These may be challenging times, but it all depends on my perspective. Remembering and understanding the past helps me be grateful for the blessings I do have now in my life. 

Know Thyself

One of the outcomes of a global pandemic is that life became homogenized. Everyone tried to not get sick, and some people were more effective at this than others. Furthermore, everyone stayed home when they could and limited the number of people in their “bubble.” As a result, everyone was worried and everyone was fearful. Those who were not part of our family became “the other people” and we did not cross path with “others” in fear of getting sick and then possibly dying from COVID. 

Then, one day things started loosening up. More and more people did not wear masks. People actually went outside and greeted other people. Later, they shook hands. Next, people hugged family, friends, and neighbors. “It’s over,” and “we made it through” were common phrases that could be heard in large and small group settings. Still, the cost was high and quite a few of us lost loved ones along the way. 

Now, we are searching for a new normal, and we are finding it difficult. This is because we have been changed by our experience of the pandemic, and society at large has also changed because of the pandemic. While things may appear to be the same outwardly, e.g. people are going to the grocery store and to work while children are going to school, our understanding about life now is quite different. We understand that life is fragile and not always controllable. 

With this new understanding, I believe we need to sit down and take stock our lives and our life choices. The ancient philosopher Socrates understood this perspective when he wrote, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” He recognized that when we choose to understand and appreciate who we are plus what we believe, then we can make better life choices. With self-awareness and self-knowledge, we can make decisions based on clarity rather than default. 

I think the choice now is to not default to pre-pandemic ways of thinking and living, but instead to consciously seek greater understanding, meaning and purpose in our lives. This begins by embracing the words of Charlie Mackesy in his book, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse (HarperOne, 2019): “Always remember you matter, you’re important and you are loved, and you bring to this world things no one else can.” When we live with this degree of understanding and clarity, then we can co-create with others a new beginning and a new and better normal in this post pandemic world. 

Rebuild Your Community

As I visit with more and more individuals and small groups, I have to come to the conclusion that a large number of people are feeling lonely and isolated during this time period. While we may not be physically isolated as we were during the pandemic, we are still feeling that way. I believe we are suffering from some degree of post pandemic stress disorder where we feel disconnected from ourself and our community. We also are afraid of exposure to what ever is coming next or some new version of COVID. In simple terms, we have lost a healthy and vibrant social life, because of all that has happened over the last three years. 

Recognizing the diversity of emotions that we are feeling, I think the root cause is decision fatigue. In March of 2020 when the global lockdown started, we entered into a time period where there were endless decisions that needed to be made. These decisions were based on survival and functionality. Many of them were both complicated and complex. And given the number and magnitude of decisions we had to make each day, we ended up depleted at the end of every day. 

Now, there is a major difference between doing things that deplete us on a daily basis, and doing things when we are depleted on a daily basis. The former causes the feeling of being depleted, and the later causes us to make careless choices, surrender to status quo, feel hopeless, and sometimes just do nothing. I think as we emerge from a global pandemic, we enter a world, where individually and collectively, we are running on empty. Our inner strength is weak and our willpower to rise again to another challenge is also weakened.  

At times like this, I think of something Albert Schweitzer wrote years ago: “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” 

And this is what I think we need now, a rekindling of our inner spirit. We need to be with people who will help our inner fire burst back to life. The pathway to doing this happens when we build, and rebuild our community. We can no longer just focus on maintaining our bubble in order to survive, but we must instead choose to build a vibrant, healthy, and diverse community of new and old, friends and family. We need to invest time, energy, and space in our lives to reacquaint and reconnect with others from all walks of life. 

As Carl Rogers reminds us, “The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.” And the direction we need to take right now and for many years to come is to focus on community building and community care. It is through these networks of people that we will find our inner strength, courage and hope. We also will discover a new sense of normal along the way. 

Walk The Path

Right now, step by step, we walk through each day. Day by day, we move through each week. Week by week, we move through each month. And month by month, we move through this new year and into years to come. 

We are walking the path forward into a new normal. “Wanderer, there is no road,” writes Spanish poet Antonio Machado, “the road is made by walking.” The same is true for finding a new normal. There is no new normal to be discovered. Instead, it is created by our walking forward with faith and purpose. 

And as we walk this path from where we are now into a new normal, we must learn once again to see old things from new and different perspectives. We must believe in the light beyond, and be willing to call the light toward us. We must find meaning in the ordinary, and remember the past. We must learn to know ourselves, and to rekindle our networks and communities. 

But along the way we must understand one more thing. “The place where we are genuinely met and heard have great importance to us,” writes Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. “Being in them reminds us of our strength and our value in ways that many other places we may pass through do not…. The place in which we are seen and heard are holy places. They remind us of our value as human beings. They give us strength to go on. Eventually they may even help us to transform our path into wisdom.” For in these holy places, where we are met, seen, and heard, we realize that are not alone. Instead, we are with all the world, seeking and rediscovering our inner flame of strength and purpose. 

We also come to realize that Ram Dass was right when he wrote, “We are all walking each other home.” For in this post pandemic time period, it is time to realize and choose a path where we leave no one behind, welcome all to join us, and recognize that there is more than enough to go around. We have survived a global pandemic and now have the opportunity to build a healthier and more resilient world, one relationship at a time. Today is a gift, and we can choose to walk together on this sacred path to wisdom. 

© Geery Howe 2023

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Searching For A New Normal - part #1

Introduction

I believe we are searching for a new normal in this post pandemic time period. The difficulty is that we are worn and we are fearful given what we experienced the last three years. While we may no longer be hyper vigilant about COVID protocols, I think one of the outcomes of the pandemic is that we are afraid that we don’t matter anymore. In particular, we feel our work doesn’t matter. Furthermore, we feel like our efforts each day don’t matter, because we don’t really feel like we are making a difference anymore. Life has begun to feel like a treadmill that continually speeds up and we are running faster and faster to just to stay in place. 

And in our search for a new normal, we long for a different experience of the world. We long for meaningful relationships, and meaningful work. We long for a life that connects us to something greater. In short, we long for purpose and hope in a world filled with grief, pressure, and turbulence. 

Through The Eyes Of A Child

My wife, Jane, and I live in a small town in eastern Iowa. When we first moved into the house that we bought from the family who built it, we were the youngest people on the street by many decades. Everyone around us could have been our grandparents or our children’s grandparents. It was a special time and a special place to raise our two young boys. 

Now, we are one of the older couples on the street, and many of the houses around us are filled with young families and children. I love watching the children ride their bikes up and down the street. I love watching them play games in their back yards. I love watching them make chalk drawings in their driveways and sidewalks. Their voices fill the air with joy and adventure. Imagination flourishes all around us. 

I believe that as we move through these early years post the global pandemic that we long to see and experience the world through the eyes of a child. For the most part, children do worry about politics, famine, taxes, or work. Instead, they see each new day as a time of undefined adventures and possibilities. They find joy in a swing set, or riding a bike through a muddy puddle after a rainy morning. They marvel in delight at a lawn filled with dandelions. They laugh when the sun breaks through the clouds. 

For these young ones, making a difference is not the goal. For them, doing something to get it done is not the goal. For them, changing the world is not the goal. 

Instead, they are just out to experience the world in its totality. They just want to be a part of the world. For children, the goal is to experience the now in all of its fullest glory and miraculous potential. They awaken each day with new eyes, and see opportunity around every corner. We, as adults, can learn a lot from them. We can rediscover this perspective when we choose to see old things with new eyes.

See Old Things With New Eyes

“Change is not about understanding new things or having new eyes,” writes Dee Hock, Founder & CEO Emeritus of Visa International; “it’s about seeing old things with new eyes - from different perspectives.” 

We were discussing this powerful quote when he shared with me his story about seeing old things with new eyes. As an avid cyclist, he had ridden all over the country and loved every minute of it. One day while riding on a rural two lane highway, a semi truck drove by him, missing him by inches. The truck was going so fast and it was so close to him that it sucked the shirt right up and over his head, blinding him to what was before him. The next thing he knew he was in the ditch with a mangled bike. 

Once he realized that he was alive and not badly injured, he pulled down his shirt and looked upon the world around him. Everything was so beautiful and so alive, including himself. He felt it was a miracle that he had survived. He felt overwhelmed, because he was looking at the world and realizing the gift of being able to be a part of it. As he said to me that day, “I never realized how precious and miraculous it is to be alive in such a beautiful place. From that moment onward, I did not take anything for granted. It is all a gift.”

Not long after hearing this experience, I was met an older executive who was recovering from prostrate cancer surgery. He was deeply humbled that he could have the surgery, and that it was successful. On the way home from the hospital, he shared with me that he and his wife waited at a stop sign in small rural town just as the local elementary school let out for the day. While the children crossed the street in front of their stopped car, he burst into tears and sobbed. “They were so beautiful and innocent,” he shared with me. “Their whole lives lay out before them and they were happy, excited. They were just joyful. I realized right then and there that I missed this wholesomeness and open to possibilities perspective. I missed seeing the world as the miracle it truly is. Through my tears, I realized I needed to rediscover the miracle of being alive. I wanted to see the world through the eyes of a child and to be awe struck by the daily miracles taking place all around and within me. I have been reclaiming this every day since that moment and my life is richer because of this choice.”

Change happens on multiple levels in our lives each and every day, if not each and every moment. We just need to pause and see old things with new eyes and from different perspectives. This is one of the first steps to finding a new normal. 

Believe In The Light Beyond

I have lived twice in Mexico. The first time I participated in an off campus study program during college. On this trip, I lived with a Mexican family in Cuernavaca, and went to language school each day. The second time I was a high school teacher who was a chaperone along with the Spanish teacher for a group of third year, high school Spanish students. We lived in a rural northern village near Hermosillo. Here, we did a service project in the village and the students got to learn and practice their language. 

It was during this second trip that I had a most unique experience. During the week day mornings, we did our service project and the students had their daily language lessons. In the afternoons, the students broke into small groups and wandered through the village, visiting with families and learning about the people who lived there along with sharing about their own lives, all of which took place in Spanish. 

One afternoon, I was visiting with a group of older women over a cup of very strong and good coffee plus some cookies when the conversation turned to a subject that made no sense to me. The older women were talking about their daughters and, they kept referencing a phrase which translated into English meant “the coming of the light.” 

I sat silently during this conversation, listening as they laughed and shared about the challenges and joys of “the coming of the light.” Finally, I asked what this phrase meant. One of the older women turned to me and said, “The coming of the light is the phrase we use in our village when a child is being born. This phrase is all encompassing because the birth of a child is more than just the physical act of birthing. It is the arrival a new child and a transformation of all involved, the mother, the family, and the community. It is a blessing and a gift.”

Years later, at the birth of our first child, and later at the birth of our second child, I understood what the phrase, “the coming of the light,” really meant. It was a transformational moment, and it continues to be a transformational experience. 

John O’Donohue, a poet, philosopher and scholar, and a native Gaelic speaker from County Clare, Ireland, in conversation with John Quinn, former broadcaster with RTE’ (Irish National Radio), in his book, Walking In Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World (Convergent, 2015), writes: “What is the source of the light that banishes our fear? I read a lovely sentence in a Hindu book years ago which said, consciousness always shines with the light from beyond itself. One of my images of the divine is that it is light in some form, and that the divine light works tenderly with human freedom. If you don’t believe that the light is there, you will experience the darkness. But if you believe the light is there, and if you call the light towards you, and if you call it into whatever you’re involved in, the light will never fail you.”

I believe, on one level, that during this post pandemic time period where we are searching for a new normal, we have lost our connection with the light, and we have lost the ability to see the light in each other and ourselves. We also have lost the feeling of being that light in the world, and we have lost our oneness with the source from which the light comes from. In simple terms, we have lost the feeling, and the memory that there is light in the world. 

However, just because we have lost the ability, the feeling, and the memory of the light and our connection to it, does not mean there is no light. The light is always present, and always a presence in our lives. Our challenge is to believe in the light beyond and to call the light toward us. 

Call The Light Towards You

It takes great inner strength to call the light towards us. The first step is to remove our blinders and see the world as it is. Then, we have to have an unbelievable depth of faith that, upon taking this action of calling the light towards us, it will come. We must have the courage to believe that this act will make a difference. The challenge is that we will have no idea when and how the light will show up. 

The quirky thing about all of this is that once we have removed the blinders and have seen the world as it really is, we often discover that the light has been there all along. It is us, with all our imperfections, faults, defaults, broken places, and expectations, that has been standing in the way. What we have forgotten is that we are always moving forward into the light of a new day and the possibility of a new way of living. 

Where we often get stuck in calling the light toward us is that we worry about today, tomorrow, and all things that might come to pass. Some days we are even consumed by this worry, generating a deep level of anxiety and pain. Above the desk of my late mother-in-law, was the following framed saying: “Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles. It empties today of its strength.” I believe this is the major choice we must make. If we choose to define our lives by worrying, we empty the inner strength by which we can call the light toward us. We empty the capacity of the divine light to be a part of, and a presence in our lives. In short, we remove the possibility of the light to be a catalyst for transforming this post pandemic time period into a new and more healthy normal. 

Staying centered in the midst of our search for a new normal is an important choice. Calling the light toward us is an act of faith. When the combination of the two converge into one action, we have the capacity to be resilient as we move through our short and long term challenges. We have the capacity to search and, in time, discover a new normal. 

FYI: To be continued on Monday, September 18.

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257