Read This If You Have To Get Over It

Originally published on chrisdanilo.com

Tough things are tough.

There are things in our control and out of our control.

Sometimes distinguishing these helps us handle tough things. Sometimes it doesn’t and tough things are just tough anyway.

Here are the 3 stages of handling tough things.

Awareness

Being aware that there is a problem is part of it. Being aware of the entirety of the problem is the rest of it. What are the consequences? What is the full breadth of the problem? Once you see the whole thing, we can move forward.

Acceptance

This might be the most psychologically difficult one. For the most difficult problems, not accepting that this is now part of your story and part of your life could seriously hinder your ability to recover.

At this point, there’s no choice involved. You’re either going to say “yes, this happened and it’s now part of me” or you can try another workaround.

Action

Only after you are aware of the full problem and you accept that it is part of your journey, can you fully take whole-hearted action.

And that’s exactly what you need to do. This is where you can assess if you can repair, mitigate, or bounce back. You might only be able to do one of those.

2 Minute Action:

The first, smallest step might not be the repair, mitigation or resilience. The first, smallest step might be compiling all of your resources.

If you’re still in shock, you may want to talk through what happened with a trusted advisor until you can think straight again.

If you’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to do next, you might start googling “what to do when x happens.” This might not give you the answer, but it might help you reboot your creative juices again.

If you know what to do, you might call an accountabilibuddy to keep you on track and accountable to your solution.

All of these things can happen in 2 minutes.

You know, marathons start with just a few steps (and all that).

It’s cheesy but it’s true. I believe in you.

My name is Chris and I help small, results-driven education companies be more productive. Unlike most consultants, I use elements of Lean, Agile, Empirically-Based Learning, and Industrial models to make it happen. I’m also a home cook, mischief-maker, and a believer in the power of good people. You can find me at chrisdanilo.com.