Competition, scarcity, urgency and limited resources are usually the key words set up a climate of stress on persons and businesses.
It creates a mindset of fear and the only defense positioning that one would intuitively find would be a unique focus on individualism and a foldback on oneself. The instinctive activation of the “Survival Mode”.
This is unfortunately the pool in which medias source their favorite subjects selection in the constant quest of raising a larger and devoted audience.
This misleading strategy has always being used by those who want the control and lead yet unfortunately never offer wide perspective for anyone who stick to this mindset. This is nothing else than mind limitation and barriers builder.
Would you be surprised to hear that innovation, freedom and success often lies beyond those mental barriers ? Most probably not !
We’re killing ourselves and we know it !
Globally we are continuing to produce and consume more and more of everything at a faster pace (fashion brands, digital products, cars, food, ….). Yet we’ve now reached a non-return point and we must question the position our specie !
Then why aren’t we change our behaviors ?
Well, our brain is “bugged” !
Since 300 000 years, a small program located in a small organ called striatum, is dictating us 5 very simple objectives :
– Accumulate more food
– Accumulate more sex
– Accumulate more social status
– Accumulate more comfort
– Accumulate more information
The problem is that this program is running permanently without a “Stop” function.
The result : 13% of humans are obese today on the planet, we watch 136 billion porn videos a year, 2.5 billion users daily try to make their digital profile more attractive than the one of their neighbor, for our comfort domotic, electronics, low-cost flights, super-equipped cars. Talking about the information, just lift your head up and you’ll probably see most of people surrounding you head down on their smartphones.
So if we want to be successful in saving our planet we need to reprogram our brain and the way we see ourselves within the life chain.
The biggest advantage we have to succeed in this Sustainable transition for our specie and businesses is that we are now aware of it. You need to be eco-conscious.
Consciousness is everything ! So let’s not forget the maxim : “knowing your enemy is the key to success”
A way to escape the mind limits and to be creative
Observing a child playing around and discovering the world tells a lot about our origin mindset ! He’s usually fearless unaware of the dangers, that’s why his parents would inform him on what he can or can’t do.
The funniest thing, is that what is usually forbidden seems to be the most attractive for the child. He instinctively knows that the secret of growing up hide behind those restriction imposed by parent’s fear creating a climate of control.
The education has this role of establishing barriers and if some of them are necessary for life in society some other are limiting.
Children are born without any thought limitations and playing with their environment is the way they learn, fall, overtake their fears and eventually grow successful.
The important point here is the Environment. Your mindset and your environment shape your Self to make you become who you are.
So in fact the context makes you become who you are and without it you’re nothing. Just an isolated soul fearing for its survival.
You need to rediscover your childhood mind and learn How to play again within your environment !
Time to shift : from Ego to Eco
For human and businesses isolation and individualism are not the ways to sustain life and succeed. Indeed, the context is everything when seeking a long term vision : sustainability.
We can’t extract ourselves out of the whole environment by placing us on top of Life pyramid, simply because we are only a Link in the Life chain and businesses’ life and successes are too. We are depending on each other to exist.
So even though we evolve in a competitive society, we can’t continue playing the old way by stepping on each other to survive. We could illustrate here this paradigm change by switching form Chess game to the Go game.
Differentiation is key, but it should be approached as a way you integrate the environment in the upstream and downstream parts of your business. There is in fact only one letter to replace : eGo to eCo.
This is where you’ll learn again, grow your business and engage with more customers as global awareness for human footprint on the planet directly impact consumers behaviors and global economy. The specific way you relate to the chain of life set you apart while providing you and your business sustainability and longevity as rewards.