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awareness
January 2009 
Applying change fundamentals to real life…There's always a way!
Posted on Oct 8th, 2008
by 
dannyboy
dannyboy
With the Dow Jones dropping another 500 points yesterday the panic on Wall Street is rising. Most people think the stock market is a place where you put your money and it grows. And over relatively long periods of time--10, 15 or 20 years--stocks have shown a higher rate of return than you could get by keeping your money in the bank. But with higher returns comes higher risk and the stock market is no exception.
There's a couple problems with the stock market. First, any investment in stocks is a bet on the future. How's the clarity of your crystal ball? Most people only see what they want to believe about the future. Second, the value of a company's stock only partially reflects the relative financial health and strength of the company. The rest of the value equation is driven by market psychology--the beliefs held by investors who are again betting on a future they can only guess at. Right now that market psychology is being driven by panic over the credit crisis, which started with the sub-prime mortgage mess. Third, people tend to look at their market portfolio and forget that all gains and losses are on paper. Meaning that you don't realize a loss or gain until you actually sell the stock. Of course, this doesn't keep people from panicking over paper losses and turning them into the real thing by selling.
Q: Ok, so how can we use what we've learned about change to help us deal with this situation?
In the last blog we talked about how we use money to feel like we're in control. Losing money then equates to a loss of control and directly contributes to feelings of stress and anxiety. Remember in the Everything Changes! series we said that our senses contribute heavily to our attention being fixated on our external surroundings. Our internal operating system (IOS) in turn uses the feedback from our senses to maintain a sense of control over the outer environment. But what happens when we can't control the outer environment? This financial crisis is a classic example of external circumstances beyond our control.
The first thing our IOS does is automatically attempt to regain control of the outer environment. In this situation a common reaction would be to get out of the stock market regardless of the loss. But a deeper understanding of our internal operating system suggests that we switch modes of control. Instead of trying to control the external environment we shift our focus to how our internal operating system is reacting and work to control our response. This change from being driven by outer events to an inward focus enables us to check ourselves at the point of our thinking. Remember we said that thoughts precede our outer actions, and it's our outer actions that produce real consequences. When we switch to an inward focus we suspend the automatic reaction of our IOS and have time to think about the consequences of our actions.
Our reaction to change is a reaction to the unknown. Suddenly what we thought we knew becomes an unknown. This is destabilizing, it's uncomfortable and it creates stress and anxiety. But it helps to remember that what changes around us, invites (and in some cases demands) us to change as well. A big part of our sense of control comes from what we know. Do we know what the future will bring? We simply cannot. It helps to remember that we don't know everything, that life is a mystery that is continuously unfolding, and not to get too stuck on a version that is based solely on our individual expectations.
In times like these when many of us will be tested, we need to remember something that I've been taught through my own experience… There is always a way! In the darkest hour when the path forward is completely obscured we continue to learn by putting one foot in front of the other. Don't make the tragic mistake of people who think there is nothing left to live for… We are never given a challenge bigger than we can handle. The reward for enduring the darkness is the light that always follows.
To change we must learn, and to learn we must be willing to entertain new ideas. Where new ideas are concerned it's best to experiment with the concept--thereby avoiding the usual traps of getting stuck in the known or falling prey to blind acceptance. By experimenting we remain open to possibility while testing ideas for validity through direct experience. When faced with the unknown, answers are not always apparent but rather are revealed with the passage of time. What we learn in the process is the knowledge that propels us to still further destinations along the path.
This much I know, no matter the challenge, nor the seeming impossibility…there is always a way!
Note to reader: Thanks for reading! I welcome your thoughts, comments and input. DR
There's a couple problems with the stock market. First, any investment in stocks is a bet on the future. How's the clarity of your crystal ball? Most people only see what they want to believe about the future. Second, the value of a company's stock only partially reflects the relative financial health and strength of the company. The rest of the value equation is driven by market psychology--the beliefs held by investors who are again betting on a future they can only guess at. Right now that market psychology is being driven by panic over the credit crisis, which started with the sub-prime mortgage mess. Third, people tend to look at their market portfolio and forget that all gains and losses are on paper. Meaning that you don't realize a loss or gain until you actually sell the stock. Of course, this doesn't keep people from panicking over paper losses and turning them into the real thing by selling.
Q: Ok, so how can we use what we've learned about change to help us deal with this situation?
In the last blog we talked about how we use money to feel like we're in control. Losing money then equates to a loss of control and directly contributes to feelings of stress and anxiety. Remember in the Everything Changes! series we said that our senses contribute heavily to our attention being fixated on our external surroundings. Our internal operating system (IOS) in turn uses the feedback from our senses to maintain a sense of control over the outer environment. But what happens when we can't control the outer environment? This financial crisis is a classic example of external circumstances beyond our control.
The first thing our IOS does is automatically attempt to regain control of the outer environment. In this situation a common reaction would be to get out of the stock market regardless of the loss. But a deeper understanding of our internal operating system suggests that we switch modes of control. Instead of trying to control the external environment we shift our focus to how our internal operating system is reacting and work to control our response. This change from being driven by outer events to an inward focus enables us to check ourselves at the point of our thinking. Remember we said that thoughts precede our outer actions, and it's our outer actions that produce real consequences. When we switch to an inward focus we suspend the automatic reaction of our IOS and have time to think about the consequences of our actions.
Our reaction to change is a reaction to the unknown. Suddenly what we thought we knew becomes an unknown. This is destabilizing, it's uncomfortable and it creates stress and anxiety. But it helps to remember that what changes around us, invites (and in some cases demands) us to change as well. A big part of our sense of control comes from what we know. Do we know what the future will bring? We simply cannot. It helps to remember that we don't know everything, that life is a mystery that is continuously unfolding, and not to get too stuck on a version that is based solely on our individual expectations.
In times like these when many of us will be tested, we need to remember something that I've been taught through my own experience… There is always a way! In the darkest hour when the path forward is completely obscured we continue to learn by putting one foot in front of the other. Don't make the tragic mistake of people who think there is nothing left to live for… We are never given a challenge bigger than we can handle. The reward for enduring the darkness is the light that always follows.
To change we must learn, and to learn we must be willing to entertain new ideas. Where new ideas are concerned it's best to experiment with the concept--thereby avoiding the usual traps of getting stuck in the known or falling prey to blind acceptance. By experimenting we remain open to possibility while testing ideas for validity through direct experience. When faced with the unknown, answers are not always apparent but rather are revealed with the passage of time. What we learn in the process is the knowledge that propels us to still further destinations along the path.
This much I know, no matter the challenge, nor the seeming impossibility…there is always a way!
Note to reader: Thanks for reading! I welcome your thoughts, comments and input. DR
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