3 Easy Ways To Prepare For Negative Situations
Are your thoughts like a virus, taking over your mind with negative interpretations of life?
It's hard to escape it with the barrage of negative news, puking all over your screen all day, every day.
When you take one glimpse at the news, and you want to hide, seclude yourself in a small corner of your isolated home, and cry.
It's hard to get away from it.
Perhaps, digital minimalism is a requirement right now?
Despite all the bad news, incredible things are going on around the world.
It's hard to see and feel this way, especially when life has thrown you a middle finger and told you to kick the curb.
Here's how to see the positive when your mind is overwhelming you with the negative.
Write down all the ways you're grateful.
A virus is spreading through the world population. It's decimating economies, industries, and lives.
People are being forced to self-isolate. Restaurants are closed. Retail is getting hammered every day; they don't get store traffic.
Direct contact with other humans is at an all-time low. For me, this is a blessing.
With much negativity and change, we must take stock of what we're grateful for.
Here's my list for today:
I'm home all day with my wife and boys.
We've taken this opportunity to hike on trails and play at the park every day.
As an introvert, this self-isolation is a dream.
Technology has allowed me to stay in touch with clients all over the world.
I can work from anywhere in the world.
Watching the smartest minds in the world solving one problem is inspiring.
Today is still the best time to have ever lived. We're so lucky 2020 is the year we live in, not during the Spanish Flu, Holocaust, WWI & WWII, etc., etc.
My company has prepared for moments like this and can weather the near-term storm.
I'm blessed to have amazing clients whom we've genuinely helped over the years and who are loyal to our team.
We've built an incredibly strong team and stayed true to our values, which is allowing us to work remotely as a team, have compassion, and focus on our goals.
I'm alive. I'm grateful to be alive.
What are you grateful for?
Understand you don't control what happens to you, only how you respond.
I have a prayer tattooed on my arm to prepare me for moments like today.
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
It's apart of the Stoic philosophy I practice, thanks to Ryan Holiday.
We must differentiate what we can change and what we can't. You can't change how the virus is spreading throughout the world and panicking solves nothing.
What you can do is self-isolate, develop critical skills, help your company weather the storm, work through issues, take care of your health, and follow the CDC guidelines.
Instead of sulking and pouting, look at your current situation, be grateful, and respond!
Practice the art of negative visualization throughout your life
"What is quite unlooked for is more crushing in its effect, and unexpectedness adds to the weight of a disaster. This is a reason for ensuring that nothing ever takes us by surprise. We should project our thoughts ahead of us at every turn and have in mind every possible eventuality instead of only the usual course of events…Rehearse them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck. All the terms of our human lot should be before our eyes. - Seneca"
The best thing you can do in life is preparing for when things go wrong.
For years I've been saying a recession is coming; to prepare for massive disruption to our business.
Not because I'm an expert economist, but because I was preparing for the worst.
In 2018, yearly company review, I brought up three to five threats that will impact us in the next few years, including a massive disruption to international supply chains.
Here we are. Not everyone took me seriously and thought I was a pessimist, but this is reality.
We started to enact plans to reserve cash, build a technology infrastructure so we can work remotely, and to diversify our product offerings, clients, and countries we sell to.
We didn't do everything right or finish all our projects (upgrading our ERP system to the cloud), but the fact that we thought it through and prepared is a great start.
In Ryan Holiday's post about premeditatio malorumm we writes
A writer like Seneca would begin by reviewing or rehearsing his plans, say, to take a trip. And then, in his head (or in writing), he would go over the things that could go wrong or prevent it from happening—a storm could arise, the captain could fall ill, the ship could be attacked by pirates."
Now is a great time to take note of this.
As life pulls away from your most prized possessions, you'll learn that your life integrated with materialistic things and not life itself.
Your life should have purpose and fulfillment without these things.
To get to this level, practice the art of negative visualization and imagine a life without restaurants, transportation that can take you anywhere in the world, a comfortable bed, and long term isolation.
For months I slept on a tile floor to feel the pain of not having a bed, and to avoid my crying infant.
I survived. Surprise, surprise.
Prepare yourself, so if it ever happens to you, you're ready to weather the storm.
As the negative news rains down on you and your life are altered, remember to be grateful for what you have, understand you don't have control over what happens to you, and prepare yourself for worst-case scenarios.
