You may be thinking: “Spirals? What do spirals have to do with business and life?” Quite a bit actually.
We have come to think in terms of spirals. It’s a simple image to help our clients think about the decisions they are making and whether they are fostering growth and evolution or whether they are problematic. Remember, as humans we are either evolving (growing) or we are devolving (getting smaller).
Think about it for a moment, stability only lasts a short while and then we are challenged in new ways and must respond. Whether the challenge is something positive, like getting a promotion, or something more difficult, like being diagnosed with an illness, over and over again we are called upon to respond to all that is coming at us. It is at these junctures that being aware of spirals can work on your behalf. If you consciously work towards spiraling up vs. letting yourself spiral down, you will have considerable more joy in your life and you will grow in accelerated ways. It positions you to remember that life’s challenges will either pull you up or drag you down – depending on how you approach them.
Approaching each new challenge with the mind-set that you want to grow from the experience will help you to spiral up and evolve. People who are spiraling upward tend to be more hopeful, look for opportunities to lean in and, in general, are curious about what’s possible.
People who get caught in a downward spiral often don’t realize the many ways that they can influence their circumstances, other people, and their own attitudes to change the direction of the spiral.
We invite you to take a moment this week to think about the upward and downward spirals you have experienced throughout your life. Think of those times when you have pulled yourself out of a downward spiral to create an upward trend. Is there something you should be paying attention to right now?