In Episode #7 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast, we continue our exploration of the powerful role that emotions play in how we react to crises in our lives. Specifically, this podcast will examine whether you experience either disappointment or devastation as you confront a crisis and how each of these emotions enables you to [...]
In Episode #6 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast, Emotions, I explore the immense impact that emotions have on how we respond to crises. The feelings you have in reaction to a crisis influences how you perceive, interpret, evaluate, and act as the crisis confronts you. Your ability to master your emotions, minimize the negative ones [...]
In Episode #5 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast, Reaction vs. Self-possession I explore how your reaction to a crisis can be dictated by either your primitive instincts or self-possession. Your instinctive reaction will likely be immediate, urgent, and intense, none of which will be helpful in most modern-day crises. In contract, a response that [...]
In Episode #4 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast, Threat vs. Challenge, I explore how the way you perceive the crisis, as either a threat or a challenge, determines how you think, feel, and respond to it. If you react to a crisis as a threat, you trigger your primitive survival instinct which leads you [...]
In Episode #3 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast, I explore the difference between the survival and thrival instincts and their impact on your reactions to crises you may face today. The survival instinct was very effective on the Serengeti 300,000 years ago, but the thrival instinct (defined as the ability to prosper; grow or develop [...]
My work in the business world, that has included helping companies survive crises of all sorts, has revealed eight dimensions that distinguish those who respond well to a crisis from those who don’t. Your ability to reject the crisis mentality and cultivate an opportunity psychology depends on your developing these essential capabilities. Emotions. Emotions are the most primitive and visceral part of human functioning, emanating from the lower brain long before the higher-order cerebral cortex ever began to assert itself into our lives. Making the transition from the crisis instinct to an opportunity psychology begins with emotions. In other words, when faced with fear, frustration, anger, or despair, you have to keep from being overwhelmed by these negative emotions before you can do anything positive. Easier said than done, of course. Do you feel threatened or challenged by the crisis? Are you stressed or calm? And do you feel like a victim or a master in the face of the crisis? Mindset. Once you have your emotions under control, your mindset is the next step in changing a crisis mentality into an opportunity psychology. Unfortunately, a crisis, and activation of the primitive brain, tends to turn a mindset immediately and powerfully negative, which can then create a destructive self-fulfilling torrent. Do you interpret the situation as a crisis or an opportunity? Are you despairing or do you have hope? Is your thinking rigid or agile?
