The United States is undergoing massive change, and has been for more than two decades. It is a world-wide shift which only serves to exacerbate the tremors we feel here. While many changes have been positive (significant technological advancements), dramatic change, good or bad, upsets our emotional equilibrium. Are you emotionally prepared for the onslaught of continued and perhaps even more dramatic CHANGE? Read on and we will show you how to embrace and benefit from all the upheaval.
Human beings are built for change, but only change of a certain type and at a certain pace. We get to watch older kids learn to ride bicycles, go to school, learn to drive cars, go off to college, date girls and marry, buy houses etc. We have years to observe these changes coming at our parents and siblings, and have plenty of time to decide if and how we want to participate in these “growing up” activities. These types of change can make us temporarily nervous and uncertain, yet for the most part we can’t wait to jump in and experience these adventures.
Changes we don’t much like are those we have little or no control over, and those that come at us in rapid procession. As an example of unwelcome change, we find out one day we must work weekends with no increase in pay due to workforce reduction, followed in short order by our own job termination, our child faces an expensive surgery coming up, we must begin immediately looking for a different house in a strange city, and our spouse is making unsettling comments about dissatisfaction with our relationship. The only major stressor I left out is the death of a child.
Can you actually feel how one type of change we like and accept, and another type of change we resist like the plague?
Real people are facing changes of this sort with increasing regularity, and chronic stress is setting in as these economic shifts increase in length. Changes of this sort send anxiety and depression through the roof. Our brain’s emotional circuitry resists changes of this sort with all its might. Resistance to these changes couldn’t be more violent now.
The symptoms of the negative effects of this multi-decade economic upheaval include record numbers of people on diabetic, anxiety and antidepressant medication, increased death rate of working-age males due to suicide, opiate addiction and depression. Forty million working age men can’t find work, or refuse to work. Employee engagement in our country is at the lowest rate on record. Only 18% of workers are positively engaged in their work, and 50% of those polled say they plan to change jobs within a year due to their dissatisfaction at work.
This upsetting economic and social transformation will likely settle down in the coming years, but we may never again see what we assumed was “normal” as we were growing up. Rapid technological growth will continue unabated, as alternative fuel efficiency go up and costs for fuel and electricity plummet. Robots and machines will do amazing things and take our jobs. We can’t really see how this all will affect us economically or socially. We are left to face it as it approaches.
We look around and ask the question, who seems to be benefiting the most during the turmoil and upset. A simple answer is, the top 1% of income earners in the United States are doing very nicely. Their ability to influence governmental policy, regulations and laws is a partial answer, and not a very nice answer, for their continued rapid build-up of wealth.
The biggest reason they continue to see their wealth multiply is their positive outlook, their understanding of human nature and how the economy works, and a steadfast belief in their own abilities to find the great opportunities that exist in any and every economic financial transformation.
This is where our promise to show you how benefit regardless of the financial and social disruption we face right now. Here it is! Are you ready? Drum roll please…
Work to develop greater emotional self-awareness so that you can look at change as the bringer of growth, knowledge and opportunities. The world and national situation are not creating any of our problems. It is our combination of beliefs, perceptions, assumptions, expectations, habits and attitude that determine how well we do at any time, in any situation. Our thinking determines our reality.
There are perhaps as many as 70% of those who were reading this newsletter that have clicked off this site. Almost no one wants to hear that their troubles are of their own making. That doesn’t change the truth of it. Many of our most affluent and admired leaders had to reprogram their thinking and attitude to jump on their “high-flying disk” and realize the world is unendingly abundant.
We have studied the elements of emotional self-awareness for almost 30 years. We understand how to help anyone make significant leaps in personal success and satisfaction if they have a belief in their ability to grow and the determination to do so.
Your world is ripe for change if you are. Your thoughts actually do create your world. What kind of world do you want? Give us a chance to support your growth into your greatest authentic self. You will be so surprised with what you find, and very happy about it.
Tom Searcy, BCC
Spirit of Eagles
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