You Can Roll it in Glitter!
Written By: Dennis Hoiberg | The Resilience Whisperer | Founder of Lessons Learnt Consulting
Introduction:
In November and December of 2018, the Northern Crops Institute (NCI) hosted Dennis Hoiberg of Lessons Learnt Consulting, Melbourne, Australia. An expert in resiliency, stress management, and dealing with change in rural and farm economies, Dennis has over 30 years of experience working in rural environments building resilient and strong agricultural communities. During his 2018 visit, Dennis conducted over 20 presentations, and visited with over one thousand individuals as he spread his message of HOPE (Habits, Optimism, Planning, Enacting). During this trip he also helped produce an 8-part mini-video series entitled "Bouncing Forward: Resilience in the Face of Change" which you can find here.
We are thrilled to have Dennis write a blog post for us during this troubling time, and hope that the following post will help you navigate through the challenges that we are facing.
Dennis Hoiberg, Lessons Learnt Consulting
Blog Post:
You can polish manure – but it’s still manure. And I can’t polish this – we are all in deep manure. It is what it is! There will be many people a lot smarter than me that will, in the future, identify how we got to where we are. Our job is to deal with where we are!
I don’t know about you, but my world and my business has changed – virtually overnight! So, you and I have two options - we can sit and dwell on what is happening and get angry about it. Or, we can say – I don’t know what is happening or what will happen but let’s do our best to grow and thrive from this.
And survive and thrive we will! But it isn’t going to be easy!
In the short term we can do the basics; wash our hands, self-isolate, and care for our family and our community – especially the older members and the vulnerable.
But besides the basics, what else can you do? You can focus on what you can control – and that is you and your world.
First thing first is that you can control your mind and thoughts. Our brains are lazy and will always take us to the worst-case scenario. At three o’clock in the morning, we are awake, staring at the ceiling and imagining all these bad things that could happen to our children, our mortgage, our family, our parents, our friends and our family. Usually, we catastrophize and think that it will all go south.
Manage your thoughts. Keep asking yourself – says who? Where is the evidence? Change your own internal dialogue and go from a victim to victory mindset. Focus on what you can do today to get you to tomorrow and then the next day.
Remember your values and beliefs. Do you believe you can control your world, or do you believe that your world controls you? I believe the former, and that’s on values and beliefs. Now is a fantastic time to revisit and realign your own. You can control your world – by your actions!
Be a good person. Reach out to those around you. Contact people who are important to you and your world. The beauty of social media, and dare I say it, the telephone is that we can actually connect with other people. Be that person who reaches out - not expecting anything in return. Be that person whose world is bigger than themselves.
Make a plan. What are you going to do? What will happen if you lose your job? What will happen when the cashflow dries up? I don’t know what will happen, but something will! Think through issues, reach out and accept help! Get in control of your world when there are many parts of that world that are changing and seemingly out of our control. Accept it. We can only control what we can control – so develop a plan.
Keep yourself well. Do the basics – fiercely! Eat well, sleep well, exercise, surround yourself with good people and manage yourself well. Develop habits and routine that care for you and your loved ones.
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. So, stay calm and let’s manage that fear.
Look after yourself, your family, your friends, your world and your business.