Peace doesn’t start when the chaos ends. It starts while you’re still in it.

Most leaders wait for things to calm down before they try to think clearly. But that’s backwards. The chaos is not going away. There will always be a problem. Always a deal that falls apart. Always something outside your control. The question is never whether chaos shows up. It’s what you do in the first five minutes after it does.

In this episode, Steve and Melissa get into the real work of staying grounded when everything feels like it’s unraveling. Steve shares a story about getting stopped at TSA with his Native American flutes – detained, triggered, about to miss an international flight with his family  and how two simple questions changed everything. It’s not a story about flutes. It’s a story about what happens in your mind when you feel out of control, and how fast you can get your power back when you know what to do.

Here’s what you’ll walk away with:

• When you’re triggered, your intelligence drops. Psychologists call it regression. You go back to a younger, less capable version of yourself. Anger and fear consume your thinking. The breath is not a soft suggestion. It’s literally how you get your full mind back.
• Two questions that cut through any chaos. What do I want? And what can I do? That’s it. Those two questions move you from reaction to response. From victim to leader. From stuck to moving.
• The five-minute wallow. Set a timer. Write everything you’re feeling – the anger, the fear, the frustration. All of it. When the timer goes off, draw a line. Then ask: what would I like instead? This is the pivot. This is where the decision gets made.
• Life happens for you, not to you. Every challenge is information. Every setback is feedback. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can ask what it’s trying to show you and move.

This episode is for anyone leading through uncertainty right now. In business. In life. In the world. 

Listen to the podcast below:

More Business More Life® Podcast Episode 207