As millions of lives have been hindered in recent weeks/months I started thinking more and more about what this means for the state of humanity as we know it.
Ultimately I’ve set about many a rant talking about the concept of consumerist ignorance and our over comfortable capitalist selves, trapped in a state of wanting, depression and anxiety… But what’s befallen us recently, as much as it’s taken lives and caused wide spread panic, also has the potential to rapidly heal a huge proportion of the world over if we alone can harness our internal pandemic belief.
As people learn what it means to evoke social distancing, I cannot help but point out, that we were already well into social distancing before any of this began. Many were just to ignorant or arrogant to see it.
You see, I’ve been fighting for years to get people to take a step back, to consider their internal compass and build on their natural compassion for others and in many instances it’s changed lives or made a shift; but despite people jumping on the popular band wagon that ambles alongside the mental health debate it’s still been slow progress and with no major evolution on a governmental level in my personal opinion, other than perhaps some lip service funding here and there without any stringent guidelines or obligations for businesses to implement.
But along comes this virus… Some feel it’s a pest, others have become wrapped up in the conspiracy theory of it all, I’ve even heard some mention that the CIA did it, while others suggested Greenpeace… and I’m not really sure where it came from in reality, but as rapidly as it spreads with many instances taking peoples lives, it’s also starting to give people their lives back.
The whole thing has become a metaphorical double edged sword!
As infectious as the negative aspects surrounding the virus are, it’s also forced the world into a state of consideration. Consideration of what matters in life, consideration of where they want to be, or who they want to be at the end of it all.
Ironically, despite it being dubbed a respiratory infection, it’s finally given us time to sit back and breathe.
It has no consideration for your wealth, status or individual life preferences, it simply means that you must be confined to the one place that many try and escape from every day, as they go about their busy lives.
But if we set aside the scary bits and the isolation we face within the coming months, we might just catch a glimpse of the opportunity here. Carbon emissions and pollution have gone down, outside a bit of panic buying we’re already less devoted to those unnecessary consumer goods and we’re trying to live our lives more frugally and sustainably than we did previously… as Cicero said, “where there’s life, there’s hope”.
And that hope resides around the child within. This is your time, it’s that moment you’ve been waiting for. If you hated your life then now’s the time to change! Many are losing their jobs to redundancy, but you hated that job anyway, so go and get a job at LEGO, go and be a teacher, go and save lives… There’s an opportunity her to change tack and sail in a direction that might better fulfil who you always wanted to be.
I for one am ceasing the day… It’s carpe diem at dawn, here in The Bipolar Businessman household. And that’s every day without fail!
Sure I’ve dropped a few contracts and had some money move about which will make life slightly difficult, but if it’s going to be difficult then I may as well focus on what I’ve been planning and procrastinating on for a long while and for me that’s a much wider focus into well-being.
When I consider what I want to do in life, in reality it always boils down to harnessing my pain that I might better help other to work through theirs. I really just want to stop people taking their own lives and fundamentally it’s my lived experience that operates as a catalyst for that, but it’s also my business background…
I’m always the guy that’s brought in to generate companies/brands money, to create sustainable streams of revenue, but that’s never made me happy, regardless of the fact that I’m very good at it. “Selling more stuff” does not a fulfilled individual make.
But there’s a problem still prevalent in the well-being space, the problem is that companies want to see that human ROI. They want to know what they get back if they invest in making people happy and despite the overwhelming evidence that states making people happy means they’re more productive, (which definitely uplifts the bottom line) companies just still don’t feel that’s tangible. So I’m going to make it tangible!
I can’t talk about all the ins and outs at this point, because I’m not a rookie in the business world and Steve Jobs didn’t go and post all his findings off to Bill Gates on a regular basis, but what I can say is this. When I launch my well-being business this year, when I run events, training and applications into big businesses to enhance their staff efficiency and harness company humanity, it will come with tangible change and results to warrant those c-suite execs regular investment in their people.
I’ve never felt as driven as I do now and I’ve consistently held onto my regular work as a commercial consultant because it’s what I knew would keep food on the table, but no more! Every ounce of my energy is going to be thrown at helping people harness what they’ve got deep within them, at compassion, at evolution of mindset, at challenging individuals to find themselves and when you love something, there’s just no stopping you.
I’ve spend 16 years, with SME’s through to FTSE businesses, advising and guiding them to greatness, but outside what I’ve achieved in the mental health space, everything else has all been irrelevant, or certainly not something I’d want on my gravestone.
So here’s to COVID, here’s to the epitaph that was meant to be for me. And for you! Today is the day you change your stars! Today is the day you stop searching and start finding!
Give yourself an hour, forget your technology, grab some paper and a pen and get scribbling… Because I bet there’s something within you that’s bigger than yourself… It might be yoga on a beach, it might be nutrition, it might be a new form of mindfulness, it may be as simple as running off to be a diving instructor, but get it down on paper…
The only way you’re every going to feel whole is in doing something you love and if you love it you’ll never work another day in your life!
THE BIPOLAR BUSINESSMAN 