I will ask you an extremely popular question in Poland: when do you think most of the plane crashes happen? Well, studies show, plane catastrophes are primarily during takeoff and landing. A lot of inexperienced passengers instinctively shows signs of stress and nervousness just in the initial and final phase of flight.
When the plane reaches a safe ceiling of approximately 10 thousand meters, the stress passes, you can unfasten the safety belts and the flight attendants begin serving food and drinks. Often, however, this idyllic atmosphere is disturbed by something we call turbulence.
Then, shock, stress, uncertainty and anxiety are the symptoms which accompany us. Most pilots manage to get out of this predicament unscathed. Flying by plane you have to rely solely on their skills. You do not have any impact on what happens to the machine.
Will you panic?
Will you keep your sanity?
Will you fasten the seat belts?
One thing you decide about is your reaction and preparation.
You decide about the behaviour in a changing environment.
Financial collapse, which began in 2008, recession, downturn, rise of unemployment are common signs of the era of turbulence, which entered the global economy. Never before has the world been driven by so many internal linkages and interdependences. Turbulence in the economy lead to similar consequences as those ones you might experience when travelling by plane.
You may feel pushed around, poked and downtrodden by outside forces over which you have no control. Direct factors that lead, in my opinion, to this phenomenon is the globalization and technology development. Globalization increases the movement of goods from one country to another. On the other hand, the development of technology, computers, social media – Facebook and mobile phones cause that the information reaches us at an incredible pace.
People obsessed with consumer lifestyles continue to compare themselves with others. They click on apparently radiating joyphotos of friends, on the “Our Class” (Nasza Klasa) site,". They are caught in an endless rat race. They buy, buy, buy. On credit. It will be “somehow.” And one has to show up. A lot of us have problems with the timely settlement of the payments.
We hear about families who took high mortgages, and currently have no income or collateral. A lot of consumers are feared of information that comes to them from the media, limit the shopping and start saving. Turnovers of companies producing all kinds of goods like cars, household appliances and electronics decrease. The companies carry out restructuring, which leads to redundancy. Unemployment leads to dissatisfaction, frustration and depression.
"Panta Rhei"- "Everything flows" as the ancient Heraclitus used to say.
These words lead to a thought that the only thing we have in life is constant change, and the only certainty is the certainty of uncertainty.
A change, however, fills us with anxiety. We do not like it when someone pulls us from the state which is known to us and in which we feel safe. Safe, which does not always mean happy and fulfilled. The hope remains that the turbulence will pass soon.
Hope is built by a set of factors that will help you through a difficult time, and even lead to a sense of peace, contentment, fulfillment, happiness and implementation of life goals.
I called the determinants of these factors SUCCESS.
Watching someone else's achievement you probably wondered a lot of times: "how did this man do it?" What did you think then? He was lucky. He was at the right time, in a good place. He has characteristics that predetermine him to win. Or maybe it crossed your mind that if he could do this so can I !
Do the so-called successful people possess some secret knowledge?
Are they the chosen ones? And if so, why aren't you one of them?
For eighteen years I have been working in the most exciting business – direct sales. At this time, I achieved spectacular successes but I also fell, to get up and start another journey to the top. I do not believe in the realization of the goals without any failures which happen on the path.
I do not believe in the ultimate success without the knowledge of the situations when something does not work. In the past several years, I watched inspirational results of the sellers and sales managers, on almost all continents. I conducted hundreds of interviews with happy and fulfilledpeople. I was looking for answers to the following questions:
What makes a man successful?
What gives him the motivation, brings fortune and makes him a perfect leader?
The answers that I received are the result of three areas that the so-called successful people are constantly developing to successfully carry out their intentions
and effectively lead others. Because of their skills they remain calm in the situations of turbulence, when the majority embraces anxiety.
These features, in a graphic form, I inscribed in the apexes of the triangle below:
Let me explain the importance of the above diagram to you.
The first and foremost, in my opinion, of the determinants is YOUR
ATTITUDE/ brain /, the process which is in your head. Your beliefs, values, dreams, life vision and mission, self-confidence to the ability to determine the life goals. Undoubtedly, we become what we imagine. The biblical Job said:
"The fear I was afraid of- came to me, what I was afraid of – happened."
Optimism and expectation of the best, inevitably brings beneficial circumstances.
Every company which wants to succeed in the market should construct its own vision and mission. Define its expectations. This applies to both large corporations and small businesses. In my opinion, the same principle applies to the world of people who want to live happily in harmony with their values, realize goals which correspond to their vocation in life.
These questions will help you create your own vision:
What is happiness?
Where do I see myself in a year, five, ten years?
What new quality will appear in my life?
Where do I live /in the future /?
Where do I spend my vacation?
What does my environment look like?
My friends? In what environment do I operate?
My job?
The mission, in turn, is your global goal. So the answer to the question:
Where am I going?
A good mission is characterized by three features:
Firstly, it involves a limited number of objectives,
Secondly, it highlights the main elements of the philosophy of life and values, which you want to keep,
Thirdly, it sets out the main areas in which you want to operate.
So, what is your mission? Where are you going and when are you going to be there?
Therefore, if you have your own vision and mission and a list of objectives, you should always have them in front of your eyes, just like the protagonist of the following story does.
Robin was a true master of art of archery. One morning he invited his favorite student
to see a performace of his skills. The student saw the show more than a thousand times, but nevertheless he obeyed his teacher. Both of them went into the woods near the monastery. When they reached the stately oak, Robin took a flower tucked in his collar and put it on one of the branches.
Then he opened his bag and took out three things: his magnificent bow made of precious wood, an arrow and a white handkerchief embroidered with lilac. Robin stood within a hundred steps from the place where he put the flower. With the target in front of his eyes, he asked the student to cover his eyes with the embroidered handkerchief.
The student has fulfilled the request of the teacher.
– How often do you see me train this noble and ancient sport, the archery? – asked Robin.
– Every day – replied the student. – You always managed to hit a rose from a distance of three hundred steps.
With his eyes coveredwith a handkerchief, Robin set feet on the ground,
pulled the bowstring with all the power – pointing to a rose placed on one of the
branches of the oak – and released the arrow.
The arrow flashed in the air, but it did not even hit the tree,passing the target by.
– Did I hit it? – Robin asked, removing the handkerchief from his eyes.
– You did not. – the student replied. – I thought you will demonstrate the power of mind and your ability in achieving a goal.
– I taught you the most important lesson about the power of mind – said Robin.
When you want something, concentrate just on this one thing:
Nobody will hit the target which one cannot see.
The second of the determinants is KNOWLEDGE you have / its symbol is an image
Einstein/. The knowledge which is inextricably connected with the third area, namely EXPERIENCE / a child using a laptop/. Combining the work of a manager with
business coaching profession, I pay special attention to the effective acquisition of
knowledge. I use the experience of two inspiring historical figures.
The first of them lived in distant times, the Chinese philosopher – Confucius.
He is the author of the following words:
What you hear you forget.
What you hear and see, you are likely to remember.
What you take part in, you will employ.
Many years after Confucius, a researcher and educational theorist David A. Kolb, who lived at the end of the last century, created, in my opinion, the most effective model applied in the process of acquiring knowledge, known as the Kolb cycle. It is a process which leads us through four stages. The first one is experience / experiment, simulation or a real action.
At the second stage we reflect and draw conclusions from our experience. The third step is to match our observations and reflectionsto the existing theory. The last step is to prepare an action plan and analysis of how this new knowledge can be used in real life.
Summarizing, these theories have an obvious conclusion. Only through action can we improve our skills and verify knowledge gained at universities or training courses. Only by acting we get experience. And one more thing: You should not be afraid of failures and setbacks, thanks to them you get a chance to get closer to your goalsand make your actions more effective.
The main character of a story, which perfectly illustrates it, is Thomas Edison. He was accused once of wasting public money, clumsily working on something for years which he could not manage. A young journalist said: "What do you actually do it for.Your lab was burned a few times, and at least several hundred times you failed.
Edison calmly looked at the young man and said: Young man, it is not true that I failed several hundred times. I just discovered hundreds of ways in which it does not work.
Only inexperienced passengers panic during turbulence.
I invite you to my training course: Determinants of success in times of turbulence in the form of a workshop during which you will learn the ways when THIS works and when it does not.
Bernard Jastrzębski
