How to Handle Your Life in Challenging Times?

Daniel Colombo is a master corporate executive coach born in Maipú, located about 300 km south of the City of Buenos Aires. Colombo started his career at eight years old, working at a local radio station. "I have always had the spirit of motivating, encouraging, and, above all, a certain ability to transform the complex into concepts that people can easily understand" assures.

The master in coaching founded his press and public relations agency for 20 years as a good entrepreneur. However, after going through a very challenging health episode that left him in a deep coma, he kept working by himself, focusing on developing his career as a coach and speaker. Thanks to his hard work, Colombo was chosen as a LinkedIn Top Voice, a recognition given to professionals who publish original and valuable content on their network.

The Woman Post reunited with the argentine eminence to know more resounding what people facing difficult times can do.

According to Colombo, this is the first time the 7 thousand million human beings in the world are in the same situation. Even if the current situation represents a big challenge, each of us has internal resources based on resiliency.

One way to take advantage of difficulties is to listen to our inner self, identify our path, know why we are here, and the sense of our lives. People tend to resist change, and this is normal.

However, we can't go through difficult times, waiting to pass and bring our past life back because this will not happen.

To explain this, Colombo brings one of the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus: VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). According to the expert, VUCA refers to the acceleration and the power of transformation. Changes are so fast and unpredictable that it is difficult for humans to adapt to them in a short time.

The expert finds the solution to the internal work, especially in this pandemic time. "Without self-knowledge, empathy, and assertive communication with the people who are part of my direct nucleus, it is tough to get ahead because we need a safe space," he clarifies.

Also read: WHAT LESSONS HAS THE PANDEMIC TAUGHT US?

Challenging times helps us to find our essence and our real being. Instead of being something terrible, it's an opportunity to know what we want to do in these transformational times that we need to get through anyway.

What we need the most right now are determination and proactivity. Colombo defines the first one as a human ability to recognize our values and strengths instead of our weaknesses. The second one impulses us to remain active with our goals and objectives, along with life. "Purpose is the guidance that will take me to the result I am looking for," says Colombo. Another advice given by the speaker to handle difficult times is to focus on the being and not doing. What we generate physically born from our thoughts and our domination over them in our subconscious mind. For example, we can choose how much time we spend on the news to keep us informed but in a fair measure to stay healthy mentally.

"A handy and simple tool is making a SWOT analysis, a strategic plan use in the world of business but can help us at this moment," recommends Colombo. The leader explains that we need to make a cross in the middle of a paper; we will have four frames: S for Strengths, W for Weakness, O for Opportunities, and T for Threats.

"If doing this exercise is not enough for you, I recommend you to ask for professional help to a psychologist or psychiatrist," he advises.

In feeling overwhelmed, we need to take a close look at our emotions and recognize them. Once we've done this, we need to assimilate then ask us how this makes us feel and the opposite feeling. For example, if we are feeling afraid, the opposite would be determination. If we feel angry, we could be feeling peace. If we recognize our emotions, we can have a healthier reaction.

Finally, Colombo invites us to identify which role we assume when we are going through a challenging time: are we playing the victim, only complaining and feeling sorry for ourselves?

"If you see yourself as a victim, you will only feel weak," warns the coach, "what we can do instead is being the protagonists of our own stories and taking action to improve the situation." He reminds us that resilience is an ability that all human beings have (without distinction). We wouldn't learn how to be resilient if we were not facing a difficult or problematic situation.

"Resilience rearming myself with the broken pieces," says Colombo.

The speaker explains that another excellent option to manage our emotions during this pandemic time is to assume a resilience attitude. It is based on the spirit of self-improvement, self-knowledge, and recognizing the potential I have to give.

Using the resources, we have at hand, we can gradually rebuild ourselves from within. The Master Coach points out, "let's not deny ourselves the possibility of being resilient, we all have that ability, we must be encouraged, we must confront that possibility that we have to emerge stronger from this situation."