How to survive a crisis and use it to your advantage

Personal, financial, reputational, and business crises can be devastating for people, families, and communities. As we look through the multiple crises that have affected us over the last five few years including Covid, the War in Ukraine, the Recession and Inflation, we should take stock of these markets, health and geopolitical crises and absorb the emerging lessons. These can be used for more personal daily decision making.

Whether your business fails, or you get attacked by fake news or you experience financial losses, you will immediately feel a sense of defeat and loneliness. Our ego is shattered, and our motivation destroyed. The more we get entangled into the crisis, the less we see viable recovery options. As the sense of loss becomes more pronounced, our nervous system will mess with us, putting us down further as we are ashamed of the events that took us down. Friends and colleagues don’t pick up our phone, and we are suddenly all alone. There will also be artificial noise. The noise generated by your brain because of the stress.

Tips to build yourself back better and smarter

Each crisis is different, but here are some general actions that will help you become more resilient and impactful as you deal with your crisis.

Forget and forgive: Move on immediately and learn to forget and forgive those that have wronged you. If you are the sole responsible for the crisis you are living, forgive yourself and start taking steps to build yourself back up. Effective ways to recoup energy and focus include mediation and yoga as these practices enhance self-awareness and self-empowerment. Seek gratitude for the amazing opportunities you have and for the many small accomplishments in your life.

Focus on what you can control: Don’t waste a second on those events you can’t control. Be it a friend that feels betrayed or a follower on Instagram that no longer wants to be associated with you. Rather focus on the improvement opportunities and the problem solving that you have absolutely control over. Manage your financial resources proactively and build a safety-net to fund your personal and/or business recovery. Personal finance is one of the most critical as you may find yourself stuck professionally, and you will need financial breathing room.

Kill all the noise: Use your smartphone selectively and eliminate social media distraction. Stop sleeping with your device next to your bed and replace it wiht a good book. Start writing blogs and seek news channels that are willing to publish your articles. This will help you build your digital reputation back up and become visible again. Don’t forget however, that most of the negativity that comes through your brain is only happening in your mind and very rarely translates into concrete actions. Don’t look back on what happened, only look forward and build your new project and vision. As you silence the noise, you will become better at decision making and you will slow down. Avoid reactive actions at all costs and use silence and pause to better decide on the next step.

Assume you are alone: While this may sound sad, once a personal, business, or financial crisis hits you, you will be alone, and you will lose people you think were friends. This is an opportunity to become more selective with the people you spend time with. You will also get approached by many new people, be it lawyers, pr specialists and mental health advisors trying to make a dollar out of your personal crisis. Be wary that your crisis means money to some of these folks, and they may even be interested in keeping you in that crisis to monetize and extend your crisis.

Final Words of Advise: You should use every inch of the crisis. Crises are opportunities in disguise, and they can serve as accelerators of your personal growth. Control every aspect of it through patient planning forward. Become comfortable with the unconventional and don’t forget that most of the negative thoughts only happens in your mind. Sometimes we make the wrong choices to get to the right place. If what happened to you will not matter to you in 5 years dont waste five minutes in it.