There are many universal values that people live in their lives, they just live it and do it , they don't do it and pretend it,they live it and inspire us with their eternal values.
The value I am talking about today is (Hope) , how long can you stay positive and stand for the value of positivity for yourself and all those around you.
Does living your positivity depend on where you live, does it depend on which circumstances you live in like peace,war,recession , Does your values revolve with time, or can you keep your values whatever the situation is?
If you live in a country that is in the middle of a turmoil, would you compromise your value of "Positivity", "Strength" and "hope"? When you know that you have definitely done your best sacrificing almost everything; your life, your time and your heart to "what you believe in" , and when the ultimate result is basically "Nothing" , would you still believe in yourself or quit?
Sometimes, when you reach that point of "maximum drawdown " which is basically Going from "it is all happening perfectly" to "nothing is working at all" , you have to to get back to the first building block of Life "Survival".
Do you have the fighting spirit to survive, to get over your disease, your debts, your wounds, your pain , your fears and your frustrations with life?
Do you have the power to think of a better tomorrow? Can you see your life outside of the deep hole you are currently living in? Do you know that each one of us diggs himself in his own hand- made hole, your sub-par life could possible be another's man heaven, your wife, your kids, your house , your car, your education , your values ? It is not as bad as it seems, Right?Definitely you are not the unluckiest person in this world. What I would like you to do is to have some "gratitude" for yourself, and just make a promise that you will accept whatever you have now and keep moving forward. It is a very easy message, "Accept what you have and Move Forward".
"A Cranfield Alumnus wrote on his blog about the value positivity. I read it with mixed feelings. And feel to share some insights.
Yes, it is true, like Mohamed confirmed, there are many universal values that people live in their lives, they just live it and do it , they don’t do it and pretend it,they live it and inspire us with their eternal values. It includes positivity, that is, how long can you stay positive and stand for the value of positivity for yourself and all those around you. I would like to go one step further and interpret this obvious positivity as valuing the positive aspects of life. In my humble view, life is constructed that there are too many thins we can control and thus many draindowns and setbacks. It is quite unnatural for a person to stay positive, but it is realistic for somebody to (learn to) see the good even facing the bad.
Mohamed asked a few questions which I feel inspired to answer, with my own experience and my own insights.
Does living your positivity depend on where you live, does it depend on which circumstances you live in like peace,war,recession? I lived in the rural China in the 1980s to 1990s. It was peace, and we were a family who had to count the pennies before spending. My parents were both employed by state enterprises, like all others, as all were employed in government, state enterprises or other state-related service providers like school, nursery etc. and my parents lost their jobs after China entered “Chinese socialism”, like a huge number of people experienced in that age of turbulence. Two kids in the school age meant that we needed a lot of money which my parents did not possess. I felt that my parents survived on a daily basis by just trying to go into the huge uncertainty by giving a lot of attempts to get money to pay the school fee for me and my brother, and to secure us a basic life and the uncertain chance of a better life.
Parents lived upon responsibility. Father went to the farm everyday and that reduced the cost of living as we have the vegetables and did not have to buy from market. We limited all spends: no money for any extras. They just lived the positivity without naming it. There was no room for fear because we had to survive. Well, there were people who were drained down for a period and drank instead worked. That was out of question for my parents, whp just worked hard towards THE solution. My father eventually borrowed some money and started his fish farming business from minus and sometimes worked 15 hours daily. He secured the chance of prosperity. This experience taught me a lot. Because there was no alternative, because life was basically linked to finding an option other than the easy way of giving up. Keep calm and carry on. So, I learned that positivity is nothing fashionable. Positivity is the necessity for a living and it is linked to other values - faith of a better future and MAKE it happen.
So, living your positivity does not entirely depend on where you live, it does not entirely depend on which circumstances you live in like peace,war,recession. It is a choice, like a lot of other things in life. It is a choice to look at the facts with other emotions. Yes, it is about choose emotions wisely.
Mohamed asked, does your values revolve with time, or can you keep your values whatever the situation is? If you live in a country that is in the middle of a turmoil, would you compromise your value of “Positivity”, “Strength” and “hope”? When you know that you have definitely done your best sacrificing almost everything; your life, your time and your heart to “what you believe in” , and when the ultimate result is basically “Nothing” , would you still believe in yourself or quit?
I feel that the values we keep should not be on the surface. It is deeper than just saying it a few times and magic, abrakadabra, we can behave that way. I don’t feel that I could be in line with a “value” when I read it from Harvard Business Review and decide to follow and I live it the next few days like as if I try out a new diet. The question here is though whether I can keep positivity when my estimated outcome is zero? Mathematically, the expected value of all my inputs, so-called “everything” - elements of life, time, heart (emotions), is ZERO? I don’t know! But I know that it cannot be zero! I am so positive, i just can recall all the examples which showcase me all the good: Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Deng Xiaoping, … Name it, there are enough people who suffer more than I may feel I am suffering and they survive with achievements! There are more options than just give up believing and quit. A further consideration would be a question about belief. I am sure that extreme circumstances require extreme conviction. I myself cannot think of situations where I dedicate my life to a circumstance difficult to change, as I may have a lack of deep beliefs. But the people I named, they certainly had a deeper vision for which they were ready to sacrifice. As one of the normal folk, I honestly would try to think other options than just stick to the positivity despite of Zero-chance of prosperity, whilst I still recall the words of a wise friend - find out your unnegotiables and stand for them.
Sometimes, when you reach that point of “maximum drawdown ” which is basically Going from “it is all happening perfectly” to “nothing is working at all” , you have to to get back to the first building block of Life “Survival”. Do you have the fighting spirit to survive, to get over your disease, your debts, your wounds, your pain , your fears and your frustrations with life? Do you have the power to think of a better tomorrow? Can you see your life outside of the deep hole you are currently living in? Do you know that each one of us diggs himself in his own hand- made hole, your sub-par life could possible be another’s man heaven, your wife, your kids, your house , your car, your education , your values ? It is not as bad as it seems, Right?
These are heavy questions! I already hate the images I create in my mind to visualise the discussion points. As a vivid reader, I just linked the discussion to a few books & others - Les miserables, le monte de Monte-Cristo, Batman, Jerry McQuire, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or The Shawhank’s Redemption. Honestly, if we are alve, we can have a better life. Why could so many others succeed in doing and we fail even at the imagination? Because we build the unsolvable logic before we start anything to fix the problem?
Interestingly, we have around us those normal life heroes. I am feeling that i am a total theorist if I talk about “surviving”, as what I had to do, is also done by many others. I came across enough people who survive serious deceases, accidents, tragedies, rape, personal drawdowns like drugs or alcohol addicts. For every single person, the level of perceived difficulty is different. And, open our eyes, we can always rebuild those external items, right? House, car, even wife and kids. Honestly, there is a saying in Germany: they can never take away a few things from a good man: experience, joy for life, education (your titles), and your story. It is never as bad as it feels, because we are getting richer in things others never can take, everyday. The critical thing is that we have to choose again - don’t leave ourselves in the hole for too long. Write a blog, have a chat with a wise friend, write a reflection diary, accept the frustration and embrace the journey to the bright side of things.
Mohamed concluded, Definitely you are not the unluckiest person in this world. What I would like you to do is to have some “gratitude” for yourself, and just make a promise that you will accept whatever you have now and keep moving forward. It is a very easy message, “Accept what you have and Move Forward”.
Yes, keep calm and carry on. We are lucky enough to have made it here and it is worth to move forward. And if we want to make it better, start today for the better tomorrow. Little by little. It is not rocket science. It is the rule of life: we have the option to look at things we want to. Choose wisely and take actions based on the deep values within your soul.
