RESILIENCY RESOURCES

Resiliency is more important that just about anything else we can focus on these days. Both our personal and professional lives are immersed in chronic stress, chaotic environments and regular experiences of trauma which is defined as an experience that the body finds potentially threatening to our physical or emotional well-being.

The building blocks of resiliency are varied but always include a sense of belonging, connection and kinship which involves shared purpose. These vital building blocks have been shuffled and shifted by culture change and social media as well as being eroded by isolation which is responsible for the majority of anxiety, depression, PTS and ultimately suicide. The intentional and severe isolation of social distancing is the next major impact that threatens to shred our already-unraveling social fabric.

But there is hope and it always springs eternal. Our history, mythology and even current virtual platforms contain a treasure trove of connection opportunities, lifestyle upgrades and resiliency best practices. During the first two weeks of the Corona Quarantine I have committed to delivering a daily short talk on a host of life-changing perspectives, lifestyle skill upgrades and resiliency tools and tips. I am recording these publicly on Facebook and have published these all on You Tube so they may be shared to any individual or organization may benefit. You have my permission and encouragement to share this as far and wide as you have reach and together we can keep the fires lit and come out of this abyss transformed and with more treasure than we went in.

Resiliency is a function of belonging and kinship and this is proven out by the bio-chemical release of serotonin and oxytocin which is not in play during social media communities. We must connect in other ways!

We can explore the ancient resiliency customs of our ancestors for practical solutions which include:

• Shared purpose, mission and values.

• Individual resiliency practices such as rituals of regulation and healing.

• Kinship and Tribe!

All successful people in every time and culture have some sort of morning ritual that makes us more powerful and resilient. We must put ourselves first so we can serve others and we must do it before the world has its way with us. These are the foundations and best practices that I have been doing for years:

• Nutrition (morning tonic ingredients and bulletproof coffee).

• Mobility (stretching, foam rolling and pso-rite).

• Meditation: (principles, phone apps and bench/cushion).

Evolution is not survival of the fittest it is survival of the most adaptable. This journey is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Resiliency is sustained adaptability. Much of what we are as an apex species came from our partnership with the wolf 35,000 years ago and it comes down to 3 things:

• Choice. We have free will, metacognition and awareness of time. This self awareness and awareness of time are the building blocks of decision-making.

• Control. Maps give us the symbolic representations to make intentional choice and that always comes with a sacrifice of something NOW.

• Choose. Own your power and create your reality via how your body responds biochemically to those choices.

Effective goal-setting is learnable skill. It involves the discovery or creation of a system of categories which provide structure in chaos. (I use the Archetypes system for this). Powerful goal-setting also involves the skillful use of structure, clarity and psychological framework so the goals are effective. I go over SMART goals in this talk and we can implement them for resiliency and success.

• Specific

• Measurable

• Accountable

• Realistic

• Time-bound

To navigate through chaos we must have a map but we must also have a compass. Fortunately we all have one and its called our intuition. These feelings which are connected to our limbic system can guide us skillfully through our:

• Partnerships

• From Pleasure to Happiness.

• From Happiness to Passion.

• From Passions to Purpose.

This is an excerpt from Top Ten Tools for Tribe Resiliency.

Leaders, if you are now facing the daunting challenges of maintaining team strength and success during remote work and chaos there is hope!  Below are 10 Tribe Success Levers that will have a tremendous ROI in increased team engagement, accountability, morale and overall culture success.

1. Find the YOU ARE HERE point on the map first for both you and the team.  Open lines of communication early and often.  Ask about feelings of anxiety, dread and insecurity. This small act increases feelings of belonging and morale.  If you and your team can feel it, you can heal it.

2. Share how YOU are feeling.  Most people are waiting to trust their peers and managers before Expressing Vulnerability.  This does not work for leaders.  You must create trust by expressing vulnerability.  Leaders go first! 

3. Upgrade from the Golden Rule to the Platinum Rule.  This means instead of treating people the way YOU need to be treated, treat people the way THEY need to be treated.  This requires empathy and being present but the versatility of behavior pays off with a massively increased sense of belonging which is the core of resiliency. 

4. Double down on your Vision and share it.  Often.  This is the mighty North star that provides purpose and meaning for both people and teams.  If people have a strong enough WHY they can withstand any WHAT.  We are neurobiologically wired for collaboration.

5. Clarify and reiterate your organizational VALUES.  These core operating beliefs help people feel secure in their decision making because values drive decisions.  Having a clear set of values lowers the anxiety caused by all kinds of decision making and their consequences. Share and re-share!

6. Keep moving towards FLOW STATE.  This is the tricky balance between MASTERY and CHAOS that leads people and teams to optimal performance.  Good leaders and coaches are able to see where their team is and intentionally push them back into balance.  During these times most of us are drowning in the dark waters of chaos so good leaders will provide stability and security even if they don’t feel it themselves.  We are The Dam.

7. Make projects and relationships reciprocal and transparent.  This means that now more than ever we need to be involved in each other’s work and each other’s journey.  The lone wolf dies quicker now than ever before so recommit to the collective journey.  The African proverb rings true: “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.”

8. Play offense.  The Chinese character for CRISIS consists of two brush strokes, the first is DANGER and the next is OPPORTUNITY.  Humans are pack hunting predators and we don’t play defense well, so be smart but look for opportunities for growth. Optimism is the bright light that illuminates resiliency.  We have not lost this game!

9. Playing offense during times of change requires adaptability.  This is central to sustainable success in every industry and in every species.  In fact, evolution is not survival of the FITTEST it is survival of the MOST ADAPTABLE.  Adaptability sits at the core of resiliency.  Gather your wisdom council and examine even the most accepted practice of your team; you’ll be surprised by what you find and might even wish you’d done it years ago. 

10. Review the Hero’s Journey which is the master psychological map of how we move through adversity and the unknown.

• Answering the Call of Adventure…don’t wait!

• Recommit to your allies, gaining mastery and being open to supernatural aid.

• Don’t resist the Abyss or death of old habits and world views.  Transform.

• Hold fast to your team’s Vision, Purpose and Service to the world.

The Chinese character of CHAOS contains the two brushstrokes of DANGER and OPPORTUNITY. Accessing the transformation of opportunity within the chaos requires agility, optimistic/growth mindset and skillful goal setting.

This moves us into FLOW STATE which is the balance between mastery and chaos. Navigating through chaos and setting powerful goals requires a map.

The ancient map of the Archetypes (King, Warrior, Magician and Lover) is particularly good for this.

Our ancestors have left us manuals, guidebooks and maps for everything and the master map of moving through the chaos of the unknown is called the Hero’s Journey. Accessing and understanding this vital framework gives us the ability to navigate the unavoidable stages of this journey with confidence, skill and resiliency and lets us return home with TREASURE!

• Answering the Call and limiting both suffering and resistance.

• Finding allies, mastery and supernatural aid.

• Navigating through the Abyss with healthy transformation to serve others.

Energy cannot travel through a vacuum and our shared projects are vital to creating a medium through which the energy of kinship and connection can flow. But creating powerful partnerships that are sustainable and healthy can be challenging.

Here a few key partnership skills and the best practices to implement them!

• Reciprocity is vulnerable but contains massive ROI.

• Alignment is key for sustainable success and resiliency.

• Accountability involves conflict but is the engine of success!

• Transparency opens the door to synergy and accelerates partnerships.

Viktor Frankl said that when we cannot change a situation we must change ourselves. We are in that situation now and how we skillfully adapt to our new state is central to our sustainable success (resiliency).

• Moving from willpower to habits.

• Moving from habits to practices.

• Illuminating the shadow.

• Unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence.

• The role of leadership in resiliency.

Ancient cultures all had rituals.

·      Balancing mastery and chaos (flow state)

·      Chaos is danger and opportunity

·      Taking time to heal (broken bone is stronger or crippled)

·      Reintegrating through ritual and practice

·      Integrated the shadow (learning) is the transformation

·      Hero’s Journey.

o  Answering the call

o  Finding allies, gaining mastery and being open to supernatural aid

o  Not resisting the death of old habits and world views

o  Service

Keeping connection even when remote.  This involves partnerships which are reciprocal not transactional (honor not pride) and aligned with: Mission, Vision, Purpose, values and shared belonging

Individual Resiliency Themes

Moving from willpower to habit, this involves moving from habit to practice. Morning rituals

·      Tonic and bulletproof coffee

·      Breathwork and mobility

·      Meditation

Goal setting: Where are you? Where do you want to go? What do you need to do and who do you need to BE?

Categories of goals

K, W, M L

SMART Goals

Adaptability: When we cannot change a situation we must change ourselves. Evolution is most adaptable not fittest. This involves Choice, Free Will and metacognition also the understanding of time equals sacrifice and sacred.

Discover or build the maps and navigate them with your compass of intuition and feelings

 Howl together. Hunt together. We are powerful and adaptable and resilient.

REMOTE WORKSHOPS

We hope you find this information useful and encourage you to share this with your tribe so we can keep the fabric of our culture and communities in tact and vital.

We have designed a remote version of our critically acclaimed Tribework programs in order for our clients to keep their teams resilient, engaged and both growing and serving through these challenging times and beyond. We are committed to supporting our clients to continue to GET as good as they can so they can continue to DO as much good as they can.

If you are interested in learning more about Wolf Tribe Remote Workshops please reach out!

In addition, if you are part of a warrior-based or first responder organization and require some resiliency work from warriors who understand and are skilled with your unique challenges, please reach out to our partner organization, Valor. They are built to serve those who serve.