“No Fear – for every loss, balance it with 2 gains.” Philip Williams | Specialist in Negotiation, Mediation, Conflict Resolution, Investigation, Intelligence, Safety & Crisis Management
2019 research conducted by the American Psychological Association showed that the highest-ranking stressor is the fear of the future of nation, with 63% reporting it as stressor.
I woke up at 5.30 with a sore neck after whacking my head on a cupboard last night, not a welcome experience! We all will react in our own way to the current challenges and depending upon our circumstances. When I hit my head, I burst into tears!
Flicking through LinkedIn this morning, whilst waiting for the deep heat cream to get working, I saw the most brilliant article by Philip Williams, an experienced hostage negotiator. In it he explores simple advice from his experience of hostage situations. The part I was drawn to is the section on fear. He shares;
“On the surface, people often express anger, fear or some other related emotion, but underneath what drives behaviour is the perceived risk of loss. Current research tells us that we are at least twice as sensitive to loss as opposed to gain.
This ‘loss’ trigger is one of nature’s greatest gifts to ensure our survival, however, it operates in the subconscious. So more often than not, we only become aware the moment when we say, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that/said that!’ (In my case when I whacked my head)!
Today we are living through a siege where all we see in the news and talk about, revolves around loss. No wonder we become, angry, fearful, panicky, dismissive and depressed; compounded by our isolation as hostages of Covid 19.
The cure…for every loss, balance it with 2 gains!
- New rule. From now on – every time you are in conversation and something triggers the ‘loss’ feeling, your collective mission is to re-frame that loss into at least two other alternative gains.
- You have absolute permission to introduce humour – I always recall when parachuting someone said, what happens if it doesn’t open – we replied, ‘that will be an opportunity to discover the afterlife!’”
The current “stress” can add to the stress that already exists within the world; …40% of workers report their job is very or extremely stressful, 25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives, 75% of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago, 29% of workers feel quite a bit or extremely stressed at work, (The American Institute of Stress, 2020). The Health and Safety Executive in the UK estimates that 15.4 million working days are lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
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