Work the Cause
Challenges can range from monumental to minuscule, so finding your foothold amidst the chaos is crucial. Anita Roddick's wise words resonate deeply: "if you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito." Indeed, even the smallest entities can wield significant influence.
Life’s ups and downs often makes it easy to overlook seemingly minor hurdles that, left unattended, can evolve into persistent pests. However, armed with the right tools, you can shape your circumstances and assert control over the outcomes you desire.
Three factors – context, occupation, and sense – are helpful guides through challenges. The acronym C.O.S. - sounds like cause - are unique steps toward personal growth and achievement. Outlined below is how each factor plays a role in your ability to “work the cause” in your journey to conquer the challenges that come your way.
Context: Your Lens on a Situation
Consider the ways your perception shapes your reality. Your lens, forged by experiences, beliefs, and perspectives, determines how you interpret and respond to the world around you. Just as the Greatest Salesman famously stated, "I will persist until I succeed," your lens colors your day-in and day-out experiences by connecting meaning with people, places, and situations in ways that outline their purpose. It's a lens of self-actualized potential – a way of viewing the world that sets the stage for your actions.
Occupation: Your Functioning in Situations
How you function in various situations can feel something like making or breaking it. Leaders like Lee Iacocca and Steve Jobs understood the power of hiring capable individuals and empowering them to take charge. Your unique actions, driven by your personal structures, systems, and schedules, determine your efficiency. By curating your approach to managing, learning, creating, and producing, you are crafting your functionability. This is your self-conceptualized potential – the embodiment of your capabilities and how you put them into action.
Sense: Your Blueprint for a Situation
The connection between your mind and body is a remarkable one. Clinical psychologist Todd Kashdan's research emphasizes the impact of small interventions on our well-being. A gratitude journal, for instance, can lead to improvements in biological markers like breathing rate and blood pressure. This phenomenon illustrates that your body imprints sensations for a secure ecosystem. This blueprint guides you, ensuring you maintain emotional well-being. It's a blueprint of empowerment – one that factors in the physiological and psychological aspects of your self-perceived potential.
In the end, understanding and harnessing the power of context, occupation, and sense (C.O.S.) grants you a toolkit to tackle challenges head-on. By shaping these factors, you step into the role of an active participant rather than a passive recipient of life's whims. Remember, you can work your unique C.O.S. for your unique cause - a means to navigate with your purpose while building resilience and empowerment.
So, the next time a challenge arises, embrace your potential to work the C.O.S. and let your impact be as significant as that of a persistent mosquito.
Choose one practice or behavior you’re currently focused on then consider the following questions.
What’s one reason to believe in your capability? What have you already accomplished? How can you relate core values and beliefs with your ability to sustain your practice?
What’s one way you’re efficient? What do you use to routinely follow-through with a different practice? How can you structure that into your current practice?
What’s one sense (sound, smell, touch, etc) that empowers you? What stimulates you to feel a sense of motivation or to perceive you got this? How can you use that to feel securely confident that you’re capable? How can you incorporate that into your structured practice?
