In order to maintain a good quality of life, you first need to attain a high quality of mind. And then who knows what you might go on to achieve. Tim Considine, Managing Director, First Option, explains…
With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a great man. Our thoughts turn inexorably to where we can find more great people, in a financial climate characterised by inept politicians, bankrupt countries, half-baked rescue plans and national economies still flat and threatening to dip yet again.
It’s human nature that our outlook is driven by our short-term circumstances. Sometimes the macro view of the world stage dominates our perspective. When that macro view is fed by the conventional range of media sources, it’s an understandably depressing outlook. More often, the micro view of our own daily lives overrides the macro view. When the phone is ringing off the hook, meetings crowd the calendar, the email inbox tirelessly shouts for our attention, any precious moment of personal reflection is disturbed by a buzzing smartphone with yet another alert, RSS notification or a jolly inane “tweet”, well, it’s sure hard to preserve a detachment and allow thoughts to germinate and be nurtured into truly creative results.
To be, or not to be
Within that energy-sapping environment, we need to dig deep for our personal resources. When a high-profile figure like the CEO of Lloyds TSB, António Horta-Osório, publicly takes time off due to the pressure of the job, we know it’s a tough world. That scenario typically develops because both the macro view and the micro view appear to pose unsurmountable problems or ceaseless repetition of issues. There appears to be no way out. Our view of the world becomes shaped and constrained by both the wide and the narrow environment of our lives. And yet typically at the heart of every single challenge we face, amidst the constant “busy-ness” of our lives, there lies a fundamental choice. It might well seem like it’s a choice of one action over another, or one path instead of another, choices which are “right” or “wrong”. But it’s not. It’s a choice of how to be, a choice of identity and a choice of what’s important.
A misplaced sense of importance
Human beings don’t cope well with conflict. It switches us into fight or flight mode. As a short-term response to personal danger for ourselves or those close to us, that’s a very useful reaction.
As a recipe for living life and dealing with issues, it’s a major design fault. Yet we typically structure conflict into our lives, certainly at the managerial or executive level. Choices become conflicting options, either/or scenarios, black vs white views. And for ourselves we paint simplistic choices of the person we should behave as, or we think people want us to be.
Some years back, one of my mentors changed my life and my outlook with a single sentence. “Stress is the result of thinking we are more important than we actually are, and that the issue we are handling is more important that it actually is.”
The key here is not what is important. There are many important things, such as people, people’s jobs, and making sound profitable decisions. The key question is do we afford them the appropriate amount of importance, or do we create conflict for ourself by allowing them to dominate? Some might call this having a good sense of perspective, but that’s too simplistic. In fact, it is close to being as productive as telling someone who’s battling their “Black Dog” –Winston Churchill’s term for his dark depressive moments – to “cheer up”.
How high are you?
Clearly we’re not talking here about your chemical state of euphoria.
Admittedly that is the favoured retreat for large swathes of the population, ranging from those in or close to poverty, to many in the prosperous City and even many in or close to government. They each have their reasons to look for external pacifiers of their internal angst.
No, what we’re talking about here is something that is fast becoming a new benchmark. It’s known by a small but growing band of professionals in both the mental health field and the high performance coaching industry as “quality of mind”. If that’s hard to get to grips with, that’s okay. But just because it’s intangible and ill-defined doesn’t mean it’s not real. It’s every bit as real and as powerful as other intangible human drivers, such as love.
What is being recognised, albeit slowly, is that quality of mind is the single most critical factor in how we as individuals and as organisations behave. Generically and in response to moments of crisis. And it’s also the single most critical factor in how we determine whether something is important and how important it is.
The focus of the great
Whichever example you choose of a great person, whether from the field of industry, politics, humanity or religion, you can be sure they exhibited a steadfast focus on what was important. Admittedly important to them, and sometimes only to them in the beginning. And that’s the point. They were not restrained by the judgements or opinions of others. They did what they felt to be right, even in adversity or to their personal detriment, and even sometimes at personal risk.
Throughout their struggle, they had challenges and they had stress. But they did not succumb to it. Why? Because they knew what was important, they kept an unfailing focus on it, and for the majority of time, and at all key times, they maintained a high quality of mind.
So, as we look around for more great people, to rescue our economies and make positive inspirational changes in our lives, one can’t help but wonder. Is it me? Is it you? Because all that’s needed to achieve great outcomes is focus, our own personal understanding of what’s really important, and a quality of mind which at most key times is high. Is there really any reason why that is not a good description of you?
About the author
Tim Considine is Managing Director of First Option. With over 25 years of business experience through banking, M&A, consultancy and delivering IT service solutions, Tim has developed business training and mentoring to deliver the winning business edge for entrepreneurs and executives, including his new Effortless Business program.
For further information please visit: www.firstoption.com