The Power to Imagine Better

If you walk round the City of London at the moment or take the train to Canary Wharf, people are very quiet and they don’t talk much. People look glum and worried, others tired and strained. They scan the financial pages of their paper.

No surprise. We’ve just witnessed an almost cataclysmic crisis which threatened the whole global financial system. Even though there’s been some major rescues there’s still lots of jobs on the line. In New York, it is estimated that for every job created or lost in finance, there’s four other jobs that are also created or lost. Smaller businesses are reporting much reduced trade. Everyone’s affected. No doubt thinking how they’ll pay their bills. There are many who’ve got no experience of this sort of thing. Also it’s worth pointing out that this recession, if that is what it becomes, has come on us very fast.

When people lose their jobs in this sort of environment, the impact can be devastating, because they don’t necessarily see it coming, they aren’t so confident about another job for a while, and it hits their finances hard, especially if there’s no redundancy money as appears to be the case with people at Lehman Brothers. And they can go through a form of bereavement since it is truly a form of loss.

No wonder everyone’s subdued. Everyone’s affected. Crises of this kind reverberate right across the economy. Today we are more overtly connected perhaps than ever before. So spare a thought for others at this time.

When people experience this kind of impact on their own lives, it can come as a huge blow. You might feel angry with the company for getting you into this situation. You might also blame yourself, for not having managed things differently. You might feel you’ve failed, especially if your driver has been something like “I must be successful”.

What isn’t so easily seen at this stage is that such crises prove in time to bring great learnings and benefits, if you find a way to work through the crisis on a personal level. There’s the whole process of coming to terms with what has happened, accepting it and moving on to develop alternative strategies and new paths. This is characteristic of a major change process and it can lead to new discoveries, innovation, a new career, a new sense of purpose, a new role in life. You can even emerge from the process a lot wiser and with more humility.

Exactly on cue, I today received an e-mail with a link to an inspiring video of a talk by JK Rowling to Harvard graduates at the graduation day this year. In it she tells of her own ambitions and of her grinding poverty as a single parent with no money. What is so wonderful, to me is that, in all her trials as she produced the fabulously successful first novel in the Harry Potter series, she reveals that she always knew she’d write. The vision was there well before and it kept her going. It was what she had always wanted.

Whatever happens, always have your vision. Such is the power of intention, and it can take you through the hardest and most challenging of times. Never lose touch with your own faith and belief in yourself. Even if you feel hard-pressed for a moment or two and you feel in despair, stay with it. The human spirit has immense power. It is always there: the intrinsic inspiration from within, the power to imagine better.

Watch this. It takes a while but it is worth it. Enjoy!

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