Embracing the Moment - Are You on the Dance Floor?

I was just lis­ten­ing to an inter­view about a sur­vival­ist who spent time liv­ing with peo­ple who lived off the land in north­ern Rus­sia. Every day, all their activ­i­ties went to find­ing food and to do what they had to to sur­vive – even when the weath­er was extreme, or they were hurt or sick. He came away from the expe­ri­ence con­vinced that we are made for this nomadic, trib­al way of life – that we are at our best when we are knowl­edge­able and pro­duc­tive, and in touch with nature.

It caught my atten­tion when he said that these peo­ple were hap­py, despite the hard­ships, and gen­uine­ly were in a state of grat­i­tude, most of the time. Now, we hear about grat­i­tude all the time, and its impor­tance as a life prin­ci­ple that allows you to ful­ly embrace what­ev­er your real­i­ty is, and to find some­thing to appre­ci­ate and enjoy. And some­times it comes down to appre­ci­at­ing and embrac­ing fresh air and open spaces, on a cold and rainy day.

Makes me think about the kid at a fam­i­ly wed­ding — when a great aunt wants to drag her onto the dance floor as the pol­ka music or the chick­en dance strikes up. The choice is to resist for fear of being embar­rassed or to embrace the moment.

Whether it’s a fam­i­ly wed­ding or a chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tion, the only way to give your­self access to enjoy­ment — to cre­ativ­i­ty, inven­tion and resilience — is to choose to ful­ly embrace what­ev­er is hap­pen­ing. You’ll notice that your ener­gy shifts dra­mat­i­cal­ly as you rise to the chal­lenge, and you’ll be so grate­ful that you did.

It’s been spec­tac­u­lar to watch com­pa­nies jump onto the dance floor of life in this rich, cre­ative time as their sur­vival instincts have kicked in, and to wit­ness their inno­va­tions and inventions.

In a con­ver­sa­tion with friends over the week­end we talked about why some peo­ple are doing well, and some are beat­en down by what’s hap­pen­ing now. The com­mon thread is allow­ing the entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it to rise, a can-do atti­tude and will­ing­ness to embrace the sit­u­a­tion and to find new opportunities.

Whether you’re in the wilds of north­ern Rus­sia or respon­si­ble for run­ning a com­pa­ny in the city, humans are tru­ly at their best when chal­lenged, focused, cre­ative and resource­ful. Some­times, it’s a mat­ter of sur­vival, and some­times, it’s pure fun.

The Chal­lenge

• Where are you resist­ing — in your busi­ness or your team – being dragged onto the dance floor?
• What excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties do you need to stop resist­ing and find a way to ful­ly embrace?