🆙 12 tips for rising above difficult times (personally, professionally, financially and entrepreneurially):
The most important thing today is not to get discouraged and stay in creation, movement, while preserving your energy.
Yes, I know, quite a challenge!
You have 3 priorities:
1. Secure and protect yourself (psychologically, emotionally, financially, relationally…)
2. Gain clarity: rediscover the desire to move forward!
3. Be creative: reinvent yourself, create, test new approaches…
How to respond?
Here are my 12 ideas and inspirations of the moment following the questions, exchanges and conference I gave to get through this period:
1. Don’t let emotions take over. Don’t sink into purely emotional decisions, especially those linked to fears. Emotions run through you, you’re human, but they don’t define who you are or control you!
2. Create a protective “bubble” with an environment of positive, constructive people. Read inspiring books, watch films that energize you, consume stimulating content… Avoid toxicity! Don’t tolerate it! Once it gets in, it’s like rats breeding…
3. Get out of “reaction” mode: Not everything deserves a reaction, so don’t always be responding to information, solicitations and so on. Have real moments of reflection and creativity without external influence, especially in the morning!
4. Accept the “seasons” and consider only one defined season your whole life! We all have our ups and downs, and so does the world! Know how to differentiate a “period” or “season” you’re going through from the whole of your life/vision. Zoom out, get some height! In the short term, it seems like a mountain, but in the long term, you can see that your life has had its seasons, its ups and downs. A common example among my entrepreneurial clients: just because you’re going through a difficult period doesn’t mean your project and vision are no longer viable… That’s the Flow philosophy, Surf and use the ups and downs of the waves. Just because the leaves fall in autumn doesn’t mean there won’t be a spring 🙂
5. Focus on the right people: there are toxic behaviors (loved ones, strangers, customers etc.) don’t focus on them, focus on the people you like, appreciate and respect! Don’t let the “shadow” extinguish your light 🙂
6. Don’t get attached to statistics from previous years or months – there are no rules at the moment! Remain agile, navigate by sight if you have to, don’t get attached to anything (neither failure nor success), just: move forward without remaining anchored to beliefs, operating modes or models. Stay anchored only to your values and your vision of what’s right.
7. Cultivate joy and enthusiasm! It’s the best compass! It overcomes all difficulties and doubts. If deep down you feel true meaning and enthusiasm for a path, never give up!
8. Avoid sinking into mediocrity. Fear and loss of meaning have made the new gurus pop, promising quick and easy money. I call them the “Covid-Boomers”, this whole new Fake It Till You Make It generation that has based its communication on lies and false appearances, making you believe that you’ve failed in life by not becoming a millionaire in 2 years. Don’t pay attention to this if it makes you feel guilty! Let them take what’s in the bottom of the gutter – you’re not in the gutter…
9. Stay curious, keep learning! Not in a posture of lack (I’m missing information) but in a posture of expansion, of discovery with new knowledge or revisions with other perspectives. Don’t be stingy about investing in yourself: you’re your own best asset. You’re life’s eternal apprentice 🙂
10. Listen to yourself more! Turn off the external noise, the injunctions, the “always more…” pressure. Sit down, take a breath and really ask yourself who you are and what you want from life! You can write, walk, go out in nature…
11. Let go of the old, leave the past in its place, make room… Nostalgia is good, but the best is yet to come! Many of us are nostalgic, and right now I’m thinking a lot about the carefree days of the 90s and early 2000s. But we idealize the past! Let’s smile and laugh, but let’s move on! I’ve made it a rule to stop worrying about the future and live the highs and lows to the full.
12. Trust the process, focus on what you have to do and let go of what you can’t control! If you stay true to your values, use your strengths (self-knowledge), know your limits, follow your mission and vision, it will pay off! Just be patient!
Oh yes, if it resonates, we’re in this together 🙂 You’re not alone!
I know it can be hard, when you share certain values, to find your way through the chaos, but let’s cultivate these principles.