I’ve been enjoying watching the Olympics-I noticed one of the reasons I like them is because there is positive energy surrounding them. There’s a sense of relief from the “noise” of separation, fear, and othering that is so much a part of our political campaigning here in the United States. All the individual profiles and stories of the athletics around the world are stories of dreaming big, seeing the possibilities, and acting to make the dream come true.
Some politicians running for office state their case for being elected by stoking fear. By trying to invoke fear of individuals or issues like climate change, they cause our minds to lower our expectations and decrease our aspirations. The negative drowns out the positive, and we run the risk of losing the aspirational-the active hope for something better that is coming.
Negative messages are amplified by our news feeds and social media. We can’t stop it from happening, but we can decide how we want these messages to impact us. We can choose how we show up in the world.
This requires putting a moment of mindfulness and consciousness in between the messages and our response to them. When I talk about the “wolf you feed” I’m speaking to the power of attention we give to messages and how it shapes our lives. A mindful moment allows us to see the patterns behind the messages that are coming at us and how they’re impacting the quality of our life. We don’t have to just accept and accept those messages. We can choose a different path.
How negativity influences aspirations
When I’m surrounded by negative people, messages, or very challenging times, if I’m not careful it can influence how I see my future and the future of an organization, community, or region. Instead of seeing something better in the future, I start seeing only the loss in front of me. I think is true for anyone. For example, if an organization is having budget problems, perhaps layoffs, lower expectations of its success, we are all affected and lower our expectations.
We stop aspiring to something better. Our hopes for our future or the future of our organization and community are gravely diminished.
If we’re lucky, we learn from loss, and we learn to live through difficulties and challenges. If I’m grieving the loss of a friend, or an organization reverts to toxic leadership behaviors, there is a naturally a time when I am deeply affected by it. After surviving it, however, I regain my sense of possibilities for the future and moving forward.
I have watched people in organizations hunker down and focus only on their work when they have a destructive leader in the organization. They still do their work but try to be invisible to the “powers that be.” Their hopes and aspirations, their dreams of doing something innovative, all these positive things diminish. To start anything makes them visible a possible target for trouble. This the real danger we are facing today- the loss of possibilities and aspirations.
The power of possibility
We are facing immense challenges. Climate change feels like we are fighting for a future against overwhelming odds. We can overcome our fear of failure to meet this challenge. Instead, we can use positive energy to see the possibilities that help us move forward is essential to this moment.
If we believe we have the ability to influence the world around us and our life, then possibilities become a significant source of power. We can use that power to move us towards our dreams.
The athlete that dreamed of becoming an Olympian at 3 years old used that dream to power her forward toward that future. We hear that story today (and the 20 years it took that athlete to achieve this dream) and it inspires us. Overcoming overwhelming odds is what dreams and possibilities are made of. And great stories as well, of course.
I believe that all of us have dreams that have come true in our lives. We all have experiences of seeing a challenge and instead of being defeated by it, we see possibility. Possibilities of something better, possibilities of new inventions, possibilities of new ways of thinking that will create a better world.
So with that, I offer an “Olympic” challenge of my own. I challenge us to invite and strengthen our ability to see possibilities in this present moment! See if you can do that daily. And let me what happens.
