I heard this term “drifting” a couple of days ago in reference to the general mood of our population. Many of our retirees, our young adults in their 20’s and 30’s, many in our workforce who feel disengaged and disenfranchised.
The thought of drifting down a river came to me as an analogy. It’s a good bet that many people would say rather than drifting, they are frustrated, feeling blocked over the last few decades. For a great majority of people, they have been stymied because of stagnant wages, their beliefs and values have been ignored, and their leaders are insensitive to their striving for the American Dream.
I still feel the word “drifting” is apt, meandering down that river with no paddle and no rudder, with no way to avoid the sandbars, the fallen logs, or the debris that can clog the waterway.
What would be analogous to having a paddle and a rudder, two things that would give us some control on our trip down the river. Self-awareness is the term we would use.
In a time of great change, a condition we have now lived with for almost three decades now, self-awareness gives us the critical edge. With self-awareness we are clear and in harmony with our important values and principles, giving us direction and confidence. We strengthen and utilize our beliefs, our perceptions and our expectations to increase our resources, our optimism and our vision. We can now sharpen our skills, draw more effectively on our experience and knowledge, expand our choices and options that produce highly successful actions and results.
It isn’t so much the external and environmental conditions we face that limit us. It is our inability to create alternatives and solutions. It is our inability to understand the challenges ahead and thus, having far less capability to plan and improvise to surmount them.
This is the great tragedy of a societal weakness with weak emotional intelligence. We have inadequate appreciation of our strengths, often being ignorant of how adept we truly are. Without an accurate understanding of our own strengths, we certainly can’t see the strengths in each other.
We are drifting. Let’s recognize we are drifting and get ourselves a rudder and paddle. As a nation, we’ve lost some of our courage and belief in each other. We can get that back. If you are reading this blog, look at yourself in a mirror. The fact you are reading this proves you are awake. We need you to build your own self-awareness, and then go help someone else build theirs.
Frustration and Stress can be a distant memory. Live with confidence, optimism and peace of mind. Click HERE to learn how.
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