Surviving
We just read an article in Newsweek (February 2, 2009) about a newly published book The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life (Grand Central Publishing, January 2009). It is filled with intriguing information, research data and several remarkable case studies…all directed towards answering the question of what it takes to survive life’s inevitable challenges.
The author, Ben Sherwood, travels the world to gain insight from people who have survived a near-fatal experience. He has discussed this topic with a number of experts to understand the mix of psychology, genetics and “everything else” that determines whether we live or die.
Sherwood comes to the conclusion that no single theory can encompass or explain every situation – and – he believes that you control much more of your destiny during a life-changing crisis than you might imagine.
The article is full of details about Sherwood’s research and discoveries; the one that piqued our interest the most was the conversation about “luck.” Sherwood explains that “…your attitude and behavior determine nine tenths of what happens in your life.” We thought this pointed directly to the concept of perspectives: that luck has more to do with personal perspective than chance.
The bottom-line is that luck (your attitude and behavior) has everything to do with the way you respond to a life-threatening situation. In other words, your perspective determines your fate. (Are you surprised?)
Sherwood takes his premise a step further. With a structure of 10%-80%-10%, he identifies the three perspectives that showed up in the life-threatening situations he studied and reports that these are the choices that we all have:
- Assessing the situation calmly to see where the opportunities lie, so you can capitalize on them; 10% of the population reportedly do this as a matter of course. These are the people Sherwood described in detail in his book, the people he described as leaders.
- Turning into a zombie and walking around in a daze with your brain shut off, which blinds you to any opportunities that may exist; 80% of the population reportedly take this perspective. The good news is that even though this is their initial reaction, they can learn to “snap out of it” if they learn some alternative strategies like the ones in this book.
- Becoming so frightened that you flail around and become a danger to yourself and others; 10% of the population falls into this category. These are the people who die needlessly and often take others with them. These are the people you want to avoid in a crisis.
If what you experience is all a matter of your perspective, your mindset and your ways of thinking about a situation, then what about that same connection in other contexts?
Take the weather for example, always a favorite topic in our part of the world this time of year.
The topic of weather – and perspective – came up just the other day in conversation with a friend of ours, Beca. She was commenting on the fact that when the temperature hit 32 degrees here in Ohio at the start of winter, everyone bundled up and complained about the cold. Yet once we came out of our cold snap of -4 degrees, lots of people were out in their shirtsleeves, excited about how warm it was when it hit 32 degrees.
So what’s the weather like in your organization right now?
As the storm of this economy swirls around your organization, what behaviors are you seeing – are people calmly assessing the situation to see where the opportunities are, are they in a daze or are they flailing around needlessly?
And what about you? What part of your work life would benefit if you took control of your destiny right now? If you were open to noticing opportunities when they showed up? If you seized upon openings that other people are missing?
We invite you to join us in doing just that this week ~ and let us know how it goes.