A Simple Personal Solution to A World Crisis?

What is the utility in crisis?

Right now, most of us are “feelin’ the heat” of this damned coronavirus situation.

Job loss, health concerns, elevated anxiety, irrational thinking (due to heightened fear), and just an overall feeling of dread mixed with a subtle sense of terror.

“What’s gonna happen?”

“What am I gonna do?”

“How am I gonna get through this?”

“How am I gonna take care of my family?”

Whether its cash flow, personal health, family well being or just general fear due to uncertainty of what’s gonna happen, this post, hopefully, will help you just stop for a moment and think.

While most of us have never experienced anything like this in the past, the underlying truth you should IMMEDIATELY apply is remembering that fear, by itself, is NOT useful.

It clouds your thinking.

It either makes your freeze up or jump too quickly to a non helpful action (an action that might do more harm than good).

Yes, of course it’s scary when things seem to be going to shit all around you, but the good news is if you’ve got time to read this, you’ve got time to make a mini plan which you can and should then put into action.

The plan doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to have a clear mission and purpose.

One of the creative tools I ALWAYS like referring to whether in crisis or not is Maslow’s Pyramid.

You know, the Hierarchy of Needs thing.

Why?

It’s a USEFUL reminder.

When folks start panicking they stop philosophizing and revert to basic cave dwelling primates.

We stop thinking about being the best version of ourselves and start thinking about “Holy shit, am I gonna lose my home?”

You immediately stop thinking about how much you dislike your job because you’re too busy, worried if you’ll even have one.

You stop thinking luxury wants because you’re too busy worrying about survival needs.

If I were to bet, the VERY first thing most people think when they think "everything's on lockdown" is money.

Assuming you're healthy (at this point), of course.

But, Folks…

Please…

Let’s not forget a useful thing about what money IS.

It’s nothing but a value exchange SUBSTITUTE.

Before there was money what was there?

VALUE EXCHANGE!

I’ll give you 2 chickens for your sack of flour.

I’ll tend to your farm if you allow me shelter.

I’ll protect you and your family if you tend to my food needs.

The thing is though money allows us to exchange value so much more efficiently than we used to in the past, however, it’s still nothing more than a representation of value exchanged AND as a TOOL it can pile up.

Money itself is just a tool.

And like ANY other tool, it’s only really useful if USED!

But if you don’t have it, then what?

You have tap into your inner human value.

Skills.

What skills do you have that others can use?

What can you DO for someone else that they might find valuable?

Better yet…

What skills do you have you can use to make the UNUSED RESOURCES others have more useful to them?

What unused resources?

I dunno…

They have lists?

They have offers?

Services?

Money?

Creative work they’re not using?

Taking it back to the Pyramid, remember, at the base you’ve got Basic Needs, food, water, air, safety, shelter, you know… the minimum you need to stay alive.

After that you’ve got belonging and esteem needs, the stuff of emotional regard.

And, finally, we’ve got the self actualization stuff, the things in the creative deep work realm.

The cool thing is…

If ALL you did was focus on other people’s BASIC needs (you might have to do this at the SAME TIME you take care of your own basic needs), you actually IMMEDIATELY start fulfilling your own HIGHER VALUE PURPOSE needs, as well.

What does that mean?

In other words, when we ALL focus on helping others, we ALL help ourselves BETTER, collectively, than we can help ourselves by ourselves.

WTF?

Yeah… I promise, value exchange like this is how humans became the dominant species on this planet.

It’s economics, baby.

So…

Back at the beginning of this long a$$ post I asked you what is the utility in crisis?

The short answer?

It reminds you to stop and see if you can’t help yourself by thinking up ways to add value to others.

You DO NOT have to do it selflessly (although that’s fine, too, especially if you have a well-stocked supply of resources).

You can do it with the intent of coming to an agreement and understanding that you’re exchanging value.

What’s that sound like?

“Hey if I can help you do x, would you be willing to give me y?”

Or

“Hey would you let me use your x (resource) and if I can some how use it to generate some kind of revenue I’ll give you y for letting me use it?”

Hope this made sense.

By the way, no matter what your resources, if you’re feeling the pain of this pandemic, need help getting more resourceful, why not shoot me a pm and let’s see together how to help you quickly get through this?

It’s probably easier than you think and the value exchange could be more valuable than you imagine.

Should we chat?

If you're stuck and need help out, shoot me a pm.