To Stay Up In Down Times, Build Personal Resilience, and the Capacity to Create What Matters Most
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." — Alan Kay
The key to staying up in down times is to build personal resilience, and develop your capacity to create what matters—with whatever life gives you to work with!
Why do we need resilience, and the ability to create? Look at the following reasons:
Financial crises. Climate change, and globlal warming. Weird weather. Peak Oil fears. Resource Wars. Mortgage meltdown. Housing markets collapse. Job losses. Bailouts. Insecurity. The list goes on and on.
When people focus on such problems and issues, they worry. They fret. And fretting leads to feeling down, depressed, and dispirited. Worriers lack energy and foresight. If they take action, it's not likelyl to work, and many just quit trying. This leads to a negative spiral down into hopelessness, and eventually, despair. It is a nasty vicious circle.
How, then, are we supposed to stay up in such down times?
Seeing "Problems" As Raw Material for Building Personal Resilience and Creating What Matters
"It's a huge mess," a client recently lamented to me, referring to some of the problems of the world listed above. "How can we get rid of this whole complex, depressing mess?"
"Well," I replied, "maybe getting rid of it is not our only option. Perhaps the only way out is through. And to do so—to stay up in down times—we need to build resilience, and develop our capacity to create what matters."
Complexity, I told her, is a critical part of life. It keeps novels interesting, fine wine enjoyable, and living systems resilient and healthy. “Let’s face it,” said Limits to Growth author Donella Meadows, “the universe is messy. That’s what makes the world interesting, that’s what makes it beautiful, and that’s what makes it work.”
Messiness—complexity—is not a problem—in life, or in you. You don't have to get rid of messiness. You can't "solve" it. And you needn't be depressed by it.
Instead of dwelling on problems, and the impossibility of solving them, I suggest that the best way to stay up in down times is to learn to use life's messiness as raw material for increasing resilience, and creating what matters—with whatever life throws at you.
Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune. It's a kind of emotional buoyancy—the ability to bounce back from difficulties.
Creating—focusing on and taking action to bring into being what we truly want in our lives, work, and world—is a far more powerful and effective strategy for generating real and lasting results than solving problems.
Resilience and the capacity to create reinforce each other. Together, they create a postive, upward-spiraling virtuous circle.
Developing the capacity to create what matters—with whatever life gives us—is a huge step in developing the resilience needed to stay up in down times. With a well-developed capacity to create, we are much more likely to weather the current storms, and come out the other side better than we are now.
As Albert Einstein so wisely said: "Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity."
The capacity to create cannot only help us stay up in these down times. It can help us thrive. It can help us find and make the best of the opportunity that lies awaiting.
However, before we can focus on creating what matters, we first have to understand why problem solving so often fails to produce real and lasting results.
The Limits of Problem Solving
Most of what we commonly call problem solving focuses on relief, not results.
Typically, "problem solving" focuses on what we don't like, and don't want. But instead of trying to bring about a a real and lasting result, it mostly focuses on getting rid of the intensity associated with our problems. It focuses on and tries to eliminate or relieve the pain, frustration, or conflict we feel when we face what we define as a "problem."
Have a painful headache from sitting at your computer all day? Take painkillers!
But this solution does nothing to change the situation that caused the pain. It doesn't change the eyestrain and muscle tightness that arise from improper ergonomics at your workstation. Instead, by relieving the intensity of the pain, it allows you to continue to do what caused that pain in the first place. Some solution, eh?
Freeways are supposed to "relieve" congestion and speed traffic flow. But a study by the British government found that the opposite occurs. They concluded that the prime cause of congestion in Britain was building new motorways.
Why? New motorways temporarily relieve congestion, and make driving easier and more pleasurable. Thus, more drivers take advantage of them, until, once again, the motorways become congested, linear parking lots, packed with angry, stress-out drivers who can't wait to get home and belt back a couple of double Scotches to "solve" their stress.
The automobile, by the way, was introduced to Victorian Europe as "the solution to pollution" caused by carriage horses.
Right! And how's that working for us?
The Dynamics of Problem Solving
In problem solving, action is not often taken until the pressure for a solution becomes intense. Many of us need to feel pain, anger, fear, or frustration before we can force ourselves to act.
But, if our action works, it reduces the pressure we feel. It relieves the intensity.
Less intensity leads to less action. Our attention shifts to more intense problems, other brushfires to fight. But without continued action, the problem remains, and often comes back.
Sometimes, the form the problem comes back as is worse than the original problem. Today's horseless carriages generate far more damaging pollution than their predecessors did. The cure is often worse than the disease.
And so it is for most of life's small and large challenges. Problem solving sucks up time, energy, and resources, but fails to produce to real and lasting results.
You do not rally people to take advantage of the opportunities in crises by piling negative statistics and tales of woe upon them, night after night, in so-called "news" shows. Doing so can scare them into reaction, or worse, inaction.
You do not rally a population to live in a more environmentally sustainable way by scaring them with global warming horror stories. But you do up the intensity of their fear. Scare us too much, though, and many of us will just throw up our arms in despair.
"What's the point?" we'll ask. "Why do anything?" shrugging, as we duck out for a latte or a beer, or something a little more numbing.
What then can we do? How best do we stay up—positive, resilient, enthusiastic, and creating what matters—in these difficult times?
Embrace Reality As-It-Is; Create What Matters!
To build resilience and stay up in these down times, it is best to embrace the messiness you encounter in life, work, and the rest of your world. Then rise above it by shifting your focus to creating what matters most.
Doing so will make you more flexible, more resilient, and better able to take advantage of the opportunities in the crises we face.
Don't dwell, for example, on the bad things that might happen as a result of the financial crisis, climate change, and irresponsible local politicians. Don't fight to get rid of, or relief from these things that you don't like and don't want. Instead, focu on what you truly DO want—and then take action to bring it into being.
The other night, for example, I saw a bit on TV about a local brewery that was worried about losing customer share in a shrinking market. Instead of hunkering down, and cutting back, they created a new brand of beer, called "Bailout Bitter". Their sales shot throw the roof!
The skater-inspired shoe company Etnies initiated another crafty action. When they heard that shoe giant Adidas was canceling all their employee Christmas parties, the Etnies folks invited all the Adidas employees to join them for a party in a Portland pub.
Suddenly, Etnies was all over the newspapers, nightly news, and Internet in Canada and the US. They got millions of dollars worth of publicity for about $1000 worth of beer -- if any Adidas staff even showed up. More likely a bunch of Nike's gang crashed the thing, and a bunch of new ideas were created.
Creating focuses on what you care about, on what you love, and most want to see exist—and taking action to bring it into being—in spite of current circumstances, problems, and adversity. So, in tough times, creating is the way to go. It lifts you up. It motivates you. It gives you a sense of confidence that you can make it through tough times.
All the truly successful and lasting results that make up our culture -- art, literature, music, science, business, etc…-- were created, not by problem solvers, but by creators who had a clear vision, were fierce reality, and focused on action, and learning from experience.
So, instead of worrying yourself into depression, and trying to solve "problems", focus instead on creating results such as a flexible career, a home-based business, or a cooperative, neighborhood garden.
These are good times to focus on creating a rich yet simple and sustainable low-footprint lifestyle, or business style. Cut out waste, which is just lost profit. Focus on creating innovative ways to make a sufficient income in difficult times.
Focus on taking whatever life gives you, and using it as the raw material with which to create what truly matters to you.
So, how do you create what matters to you—with whatever you have to work with?
Creating: Driven By Vision, Grounded In Reality, Focused On Action & Results
Creating relies on a skill set and organizing framework that is driven by vision, grounded in reality, and focused on actions that support what matters to you. Because it is an integrated approach, it's best to approach the skills of creating in the following order.
1. Craft A Clear, Compelling Vision Of Your Desired End Results
Creating begins with a clear and compelling VISION of a result that you truly want to create. A vision is a clear mental picture of a completed result--clear enough that you'd recognize the result if you brought it into being.
A vision does not have to be realistic. At this stage of the process, you do best if you separate your vision from what you think is possible or realistic. Get the vision clear, and compelling, and then ground it in reality.
For now, vision just has to be something you care deeply about and want to see exist. Remember: the heart wants what the heart wants. It's best to honour your heart's desires. As I said, you will ground them in reality shortly.
You can have a vision of a new kind of beer. You can have a vision of a healthy, fit body. You can have a vision of a small business that serves both your needs and is environmentally friendly.
This is not whimsy. The future belongs to entrepreneurs who provide goods and service that pack an emotional punch, are practical and functional, and are friendly to the environment.
As well as the health care sector and medical technology, one of the fastest growing opportunity areas is green business and technology. On the west coast of Canada and the US for example, while most of the forestry industry is going into the tank, companies that produce and sell "eco-certified" wood products are doing well. Other companies that used to make pulp for paper are retooling to make enthanol as a substitute for oil-based gasolines. Suddenly, Hummers are out, and Hybrids are in. Get with the program; catch the waves. There are great opportunities to be found and developed in these changes.
As well as self-serving visions, you can have a vision of a just, healthy, and sustainable world. You can have a vision of a just, sustainable, and healthy city--or neighborhood, or business, or family, or a just, sustainable, and healthy life.
You can have a vision of clean, sparkling streams, teeming with salmon, and running through your neighborhood, with kids and grandparents fishing side by side along its banks. You can have a vision of neighborhood gardens, or small farms that feed 100's even 1000's of people.
As I've already said, you can have a vision of an environmentally and socially responsible business in which you do well by doing good. Many experts suggest this area, especially green technology, holds more promise even than the high-tech field did 20 year ago. Now is the time to position yourself to take advantage of this opportunity. You can envision anything that you feel strongly about bringing into being, anything you truly want to create.
Vision does three things:
1) It clarifies and articulates what you care about,
2) It generates the energy of motivation, and
3) It provides a beacon to guide you and your actions in the direction of what matters moth.
A clear, compelling vision of something you care about makes you feel up, excited, energized, and eager to engage life and the world in a creative way.
2. Ground Your Vision In Current Reality
When vision is clear enough that you would recognize it if you created it, then ground it in an accurate, objective, and emotionally neutral assessment of current reality.
As well as knowing what you want, you must also know where you are starting—and what you have, or don't have, to work with. You must clearly see what the current state of your result is, now, and at every stage along the way to its final creation.
An accurate, and objective assessment of the current state of your result provides you a solid platform from which to take action. So, although current reality might seem messy and complex, you want to be very careful that you describe it objectively. Do not judge it subjectively.
Don't say, "My life (or world) is a HUGE mess!" because the next statement is likely to be, "So what's the point of doing anything?"
Judging reality distorts it. It adds unnecessary negative emotion to it, and renders your platform for action less effective. Instead, just describe the situation as accurately and objectively as you can, leaving all of the passion, emotion, and drama for vision.
When assessing reality, stress your strengths, assets, and "already-there-ness." Begin assessing current reality with what you have. List strengths, skills, and resources that are already in place. List assets, contacts, and forces that work on your behalf—not just problems and obstacles. Doing so will jumpstart momentum.
The key is to describe reality; don't judge it.
Say, for example, "We lose bear habitat at "x" hectares a year," not, "Grizzlies are doomed."
Say, "The stock market is down 550 points." Don't say, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
When facing any difficult steps, don't say, "I can't do that." Say, "I can't do that, YET."
Making current reality emotionally neutral helps you take action when things are difficult. It turns depressing problems into engaging challenges. It can turn despair into hope.
3. Set Up Creative Tension
When you hold vision and reality in your mind together, a "creative tension" forms in the gap between vision and reality. That tension generates energy for action. It integrates rationality and intuition. It also provides a framework for action—a container for creating.
Motivational energy is fickle, and fades as your moods or circumstances shift. The energy of creative tension is solid, and lasting. It is the engine of creating. It does the heavy lifting as you start to create the results you care about.
As well, creative tension sets up an organizing framework, a guiding structure in which you can take action, learn from your results, and teach yourself what you need to know and do to move from where you are to where you want to be.
4. Establish Action Steps
Although driven by vision, in creating, the action you take must honor both your vision and current reality. While focusing on your vision, you choose actions that start where you are, and move in the direction of your envisioned result.
It helps to see action steps as experiments, and to see failure as merely feedback. Work fast. Create lots of prototypes. If you fail fast, you'll learn lots. As Nicoliades said, in The Natural Way to Draw, "The sooner you make your first five thousand mistakes, the sooner you'll learn to draw."
Gradually, just like artists teach themselves to draw a scene by repeatedly sketching it, you will teach yourself to bridge the gap between vision and reality.
5. Create And Adjust: Learn From Experience
If creating is anything, it is a learning process. Creators teach themselves how to bridge the gap between their vision and their current reality.
So, a big part of creating is trial and error, or create and adjust. But not just random trial and error. Because your exploring and experimenting is contained by the framework of creative tension, you quickly learn—from both mistakes and successes—how to follow through to your envisioned result.
These five steps—vision, current reality, creative tension, action, and learning from experience—when contained within the energizing framework of creative tension, can enable and empower you to embrace messy complexity. They can help you build resilience, and create the real and lasting success you long for.
Embrace Complexity, Build Resilience, Create What Matters Most
Alan Kay said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." But that's not as easy as it might sound.
To create the future you most want, you first have to shift your focus from problems to creations; from getting rid of what you don't want, to bringininto being what you truly DO want. You need to learn to see reality as it is - raw material for creating what matters. And to describe it, not judge it. Just take things as they come, and ask, "Now what?"
Being able to accept and work with whatever life throws you increases your resilience. It increases your capacity to bounce back quickly when knocked down by adversity. It increase your flexibility in the face of changing circumstances. "You can't change the wind," says an old saying, "But you can adjust your sails."
As well, you develop the skills and structure for focusing on and bringing into being – creating – what matters most.
You can learn to craft clear compelling visions of the results you desire.
You can learn to ground those results in an accurate, objective and emotionally neutral description of reality (remember: describe it, don't judge it!).
You can learn to hold vision and reality in mind, together, and set up creative tension. Creative tension is the core – the engine – of the creating process. It both generates energy for creating and provides a container for action learning.
Based on a solid platform of current reality, and contained by the structure of creative tension, you can take effective action. Working within the container of creative tension allows you to experiment, explore, try things out, and learn from your experience. It also helps integrate your rational and intuitive powers.
Finally, mastering the skills and structure of creating enables you embrace complexity as part of current reality. It allows you to transcend messy situations and events in favour of the results you most want to create.
"Those who do not create the future they want," said systems expert Draper L. Kaufman, "Must endure the future they get."
Would you rather endure the future you stumble into, or create the future you most want?
A good part of the answer is up to you, especially if you know how to create and have the resilience to go with the flow AND steer in the direction of your dreams.
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For more, check out Bruce's FREE 98-page ebook Staying Up In Down Times & Beyond: Creating Resilience, Results and Real Reward - With Whatever Life Gives You!
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