Reconsider your engagement with the 'Titanic Orchestra'

Do you know the story of the Titanic, a passenger ship that was the largest ship in the world when it was commissioned in April 1912? On her maiden voyage, the Titanic collided with an iceberg late in the evening on April 14, 1912 and sank a good 2.5 hours later. Many stories surround this disaster, and there are also eyewitness accounts of about a quarter of the passengers who survived the accident at the time. Some of these stories revolve around the orchestra, which continued to play until the last possible minute. One states that the orchestra may have been a contributing factor in the danger not being taken seriously enough, and more people probably could have been saved otherwise. The eight musicians with their conductor played ragtime music and other cheerful pieces on the boat deck to prevent panic. That was what the ship's command had ordered. In the end, they did so, even when the sinking of the ship was unmistakable. None of the musicians survived the sinking.

You are now asking yourself why I am inviting you to reconsider YOUR engagement with the 'Titanic Orchestra' and perhaps going into change, making sure you’ll be prepared to ‘survive’?!

Of course, this applies in a figurative sense. A colleague told me that she had seen the movie 'Titanic' again and also mentioned the orchestra. That got me thinking and reflecting. And I became aware: We all experience moments in which we continue to do things or hold on to them, even though at one point we know exactly that it is not good, unreflective, unhealthy, naive, or even life-threatening. We tend to hold on to old habits because it seems easier, we lack the courage, the energy or the support to change - or even an idea how to…

• With regard to our?health, it can be thoughts like 'Well, it's not that bad. It's going to be okay somehow.' We don't seek advice from a therapist or doctor, don’t include more time to rest and recover into our busy days, start exercising differently or more, or rethink what we eat, drink for example.
• We also might encounter it in?professional circumstances. When we are tired and stressed, we don't find the way out, knowing that it can also have serious health consequences in the long run. Or we don't address things openly, perhaps out of the assumption that it won't change anything anyway, that we don't have the courage to do so.
• With regard to the dramatically changing?climate?on our planet, we have already hit the iceberg I would say and need to act much more quickly and support or tackle changes. But we continue to consume and act as before, and perhaps we still have the hope that a lifeboat will save us - only to where then?

We are all human beings! Change can be painful and tedious. But to rather do nothing out of fear or other unpleasant emotions, and thus not to face reality, has its price - and cannot be THE solution for a highly developed species like us humans! Our well-being is at stake, our health and in the end our existence.