Personal Growth During A Global Wake-Up Call

The reality for me and most others, if not all of humanity, during this time has been an emotional roller coaster ride. Feeling overwhelmed is characteristic of this, along with the range of emotions from fear, shock, denial, anger, sadness, depression and more. For the first time in recent history, every human being shares a common challenge, COVID-19. But it has not just been about a global pandemic, but about protests in many countries across the world, as a cry out for equality, along with unemployment for many, loss of loved ones, and significant changes and restrictions on our way of life. The ingredients of a major wake-up call for all of humanity!!

Just imagine this for a moment… that we all share something in common! No matter what race, creed, color, sexual preference, etc., we are all in this together! What an opportunity to build on this as a chance to see the world as one!

You can read my view on this wake-up call in my LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-world-collaboration-life-architect-advisor-coach/

The emphasis of this post relates to a vantage point that the chaos we are experiencing is a grand opportunity for personal growth and humanity to evolve as a result!

It may be hard to grapple with this as an “opportunity” when we are in the midst of major uncertainty, change, and even confronting our mortality. But just understanding this perspective can serve as a source of hope and inspiration that there is a positive aspect to all of this. Understanding this begins with understanding Chaos. I wrote a post on this 2 years ago,”Chaos and the Evolution of Humanity”, which can be viewed at: https://wp.me/p2jYHl-t6

Chaos is the result of a growing number of events that each have the impact of a butterfly flapping its wings and having an impact on global weather patterns. The key is to understand the patterns associated with chaos vs. being so absorbed in one or all of the changes. Chaos is necessary to break a pattern that is no longer working. The challenge is seeing the pattern, and determining the elements that are unhealthy or in need of change.

In my LinkedIn article, I share the perspective that if you track major events of the last few decades, humanity is striving for a greater equilibrium, with the emphasis on “We” vs. “Me”. We are on the verge of recognizing that we are truly global, but still operating in models that are no longer working and in effect holding humanity back from evolving. The current models focus on individualism, competition, power, greed and ego. These result in us seeing each other not as one, but instead as our competition. Our economic model is based on a company beating its competition vs. collaborating together to achieve a win-win.

How does humanity evolve? Ultimately it is based on individual changes to our awareness, beliefs and perspectives, culminating in a new global consciousness. We often need to experience pain, or chaos, in order to challenge our paradigms and lead us to considering new possibilities and realities. It happens one person at a time! This is how each of you TRULY MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Recent examples of this based on my interactions with others include:

1. Realization and concern that what started in one country, can quickly affect all of humanity. That we are truly global.
2. This force was needed to push companies to now have to consider virtual/remote workers and how we work together. The realization for many as a result is a desire to remain virtual and remote and how this can achieve the work-life balance that many are seeking.
3. The realization that as a virtual company we can how hire employees anywhere changing the model from local to global.
4. The impact that one individual can have on others by refusing to adopt social distance, and in particular those that are more prone to be affected by the virus.
5. That prejudice and bias really do exist and the impact this has had on particular individuals, groups, races, etc.
6. Our own confrontation of our unconscious bias and prejudice.
7. The impact that busy-ness has had on our lives and families.
8. How difficult it is to adjust to isolation.
9. The benefits that this has had on so many areas such as family time, family interaction, reducing traffic, cleaner air, saving gas, saving money.
10. And so much more…

For me, I was inspired to use this time to go within. As one person mentioned, people pay hundreds of dollars to attend events to learn solitude and going within, and now we have this opportunity given to all of us. Without the every-day distractions, I had to re-learn how to adapt to quiet and solitude. I was once again confronted by my thoughts vs. distractions. It was a chance to confront my own fears, biases, emotions and their root cause. At my age, I realized that I could die from this virus. I realized how this fear paralyzed me from even going outside.

There is a growing realization that there will no longer be a return to “normal”, and instead that we have to change in key ways in order to adapt to “new-normal”. As with any transition we have the choice to resist or embrace these changes while learning how to grow and adapt ourselves to these new times.

Considering the above, you will first need to learn how to deal with the current situations. There will be healing needed on so many fronts. We will need to reach out to others for help in learning how to adapt and deal with these changes. And then we can take that hard look within, to understand our resistance and what is holding us back. From this we grow ourselves, our strength and courage to endure and adapt, learning how to be resilient.

At some point, you will each have an amazing story to tell, just as those did who survived the Great Depression, World Wars, Natural Disasters. You will use these stories to help others grow and adapt. And the culmination of this will be another notch in the growth in humanity and our evolution, sparked by your individual personal growth. We will learn how to work together to get rid of the junk that holds our evolution back, and to grow new leaders, who will emerge to develop new models for humanity to work together as one. We will realize the huge silver lining that came with all this disruption as we learn to pursue the words of John Lennon’s song, Imagine.

Michael is a nationally recognized and award-winning author, coach, and advocate of personal growth and self-discovery. More can be found at www.growhumanpotential.com

Thank you for your time and thoughts! Mostly, thank you for your growth to become a better human being and the ding this will have on all humanity!!