Over the past few weeks, news of the spread of the corona virus has dominated the media and the messages have been rather bleak and scary, to say the least. They’re in our news feed; in our inbox; on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and many people appear to be gripped with FEAR as a result.
However, it appears that even more scary than catching the virus itself, is what has happened in reaction to it. The stock market has fallen; entire countries are on lockdown; popular events have been cancelled; schools and Universities have closed; supermarket shelves are bare, with panic buying and stock-piling causing the most unbelievable shortage of loo roll, pasta and tinned tomatoes ever known to man; we’re socially-distancing ourselves even from our loved ones, by touching elbows instead of hugging and the going rate for a bottle of hand-sanitiser is 10 times its retail price.
We all know that fear is a natural emotion that signals a POTENTIAL threat to our physical or emotional safety – yet it’s not REAL.
Remember the acronym for FEAR? It’s False Evidence Appearing Real.
When fear goes unchecked by facts, it can lead to negative thinking, unhelpful behaviours and poor decision-making. So how can we avoid making decisions based on fear during this pandemic? Or worse still, stop ourselves from perpetually living in a fearful state?
Guru Tony Robbins says, there are 3 decisions we’re all making every moment of our lives, and the first is “What am I going to focus on?” What we choose to focus on affects our whole life. Whatever we focus on, becomes our reality, because our energy goes to where our attention flows.
So, what are YOU choosing to focus on right now? Are you unconsciously letting the mania of the media and the cultural landscape of fear and anxiety draw on your focus? Or are you choosing to “stand guard at the door of your mind?”
Standing guard doesn’t mean living in a bubble or ignoring the reality of what’s going on right now – it simply means making conscious decisions about what you are willing to give your time, energy and effort to.
In these difficult times we need to remember to STAND GUARD. If we don’t discipline our fears and control our focus, the world will gladly do it for us.
So today, FOCUS on what you CAN control, rather than FESTERING on what you CAN’T!
My dear friend and fellow entrepreneur, Aarif Merali, sent me the most inspiring poem in his post this week, helping ME to focus MY energy, time and effort on the right things at this tricky time and I thought I’d share his inspiration with YOU below this week, in the hope you’ll choose wisely where to put YOUR focus in the coming weeks …..
Enjoy…and in the meantime stay focused and keep FIT!
