🍃Thriving in Adversity
VERTIGO 🍃#3 Boost positivity in tough times
Menu of this edition⌛VERTIGO OF THE WEEK - The Carbon Residual Clock is Ticking
💚 EMOHACKS - 10 Ways to Boost Positivity in Tough Times
⚖️COACHING STORIES - Transforming Fear: Marie's Coaching Breakthrough
🗞️ BREAKING NEWS / HOT LINKS - 1 article and 2 videos to harness Visualization, Positive Energy, and Perspective
⌛VERTIGO OF THE WEEK
You can’t escape it.
In 2021, the IPCC issued the AR6 report: the most comprehensive assessment of the available scientific information on climate change. Three years later, 59 scientists from 44 institutions took the time to update it. And everything is going in the wrong direction.
For those still doubting the IPCC’s work, I invite you to read this excellent synthesis "Can we really trust them?"
"The IPCC only synthesizes the available scientific knowledge on the various subjects of climate change. This synthesis is a consensus and is validated by all member governments."
Radiative forcing, GHG emission levels, observed planetary warming level, warming rate, human influence intensification, maximum daily temperature. It’s all going in the wrong, wrong, wrong direction.
But maybe if I tell you CO2 atmospheric concentration is increasing by 9.2 ppm between 2019 and 2023 that does not speak to you? So let me tell you a story that will resonate, about the carbon residual budget.
I facilitate Climate Fresks, a fantastic and engaging way to understand the fundamental science behind climate change and empower you to take action (if you have not done it yet, if your team has not done it yet, write me: mathieudufourpro@gmail.com).
At some point during the fresk I have participants reflect on this image from Ruben Mathisen, a political scientist at the university of Bergen:
So… we had 230 GtCO2 left to consume for a high probability of staying under a 1.5-degree temperature increase.
Well, what this new report says is …
💡 we’re down to 100 gigatons now. It feels like Pac-Man eating our available hopes. Relentlessly.
💚 EMOHACKS
What can you do about it?
For you, it might have been something else. Elections, social life, business disappointments, conflict at work... In the face of that, more than ever, you need a positive outlook.
Positive outlook is not being naive. It’s building persistence in pursuing goals despite setbacks and obstacles.
Hmm...
I might have stolen that sentence somewhere; it’s really good.
So let me rewrite it as a quote:
“Positive outlook is building persistence in pursuing goals despite setbacks and obstacles.”
Here are 10 free things to use next time you’re down.
10 positive outlook helpers.
10 realistic, easy routines.
10 concrete actions for you or your team.
Identify Rumination Points 🧠: Ask yourself, “Where am I stuck? What thought is coming back and weighing me down?” Now take a small, concrete action to act on it. If none, move to step 3.
Set Realistic Goals 🎯: I once cut a very nicely prepared action plan in half. Hard for the team, but it avoided later frustration. Saying no prevents future rumination. Your team will not like it, but they will thank you afterward. Apply it to yourself.
Practice Gratitude 🙏: Want what you already have. Say it out loud: to yourself, to the people around. THANK YOU. Oh, and remember, focus on “I work with the team I have, not the one I fantasize.”
Celebrate Wins 🎉: Create positive memories around accomplishments. When did you last do this with your team?
Write Down the “Three Good Things” 📝: The last thing you should do before shutting down your computer for the next 7 days is to write 3 things that went well for you on a post-it. Describe in detail what happened, significant or not, and how you felt. Write as much detail as possible about the environment. A classic, simple, free tool that research backs up as a good way to increase happiness.
Breathe for Energy 🌬️: Whenever I need to control my energy level before entering a room, I use breathing. Try this 2-minute exercise: Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, then exhale through your nose for 6 seconds. Do this slowly, lightly, and deeply, repeating 10 times. Focus only on the breathing. Don't force it or go until you feel air hunger. The goal is not performance but connecting with your body, letting the energy flow, and feeling good.
Visualize Success 🌟: Visualizing an activity trains a neural network. It’s like cutting a path through the woods so that you can run through it more quickly. In that way, you start, little by little, to be drawn to the positive with less effort. This doesn’t mean that you can’t see the negative, but you strengthen your ability to prevent the negative from obscuring your view of the positive.
Dare to Be Vulnerable 💪: Atlas wanted to rule the world on his own, failed in the war of the Titans, and was condemned to carry the world on his shoulders for eternity. Bad idea. Don’t do that. Turn towards collective action. Share the burden. Share YOUR burden. Express what is hard for you. As counterintuitive as it might be, expressing vulnerability in front of your team will generate collective action.
Find Ways to Play and Have Fun 🎲: Many ways to do so, I'll share one: organize a Climate Fresk for your team, a great way to learn, interact, and raise awareness.
Define Emotional States 💬: During a project, meeting, action plan design, or budget review, pause and use this picture to have everyone express their state. Instructions: “I choose the character on the visual that best symbolizes the state in which I find myself. I present in a few words why I chose this character.”
💡 All these techniques are powerful and feel simple to me. If you don't see them as simple and have a question: mathieudufourpro@gmail.com⚖️COACHING STORIES
💡 Confidentiality is one of the two pillars of my coaching. I elaborate coaching stories to reflect changes that happened during sessions. Names and contextual elements are changed to guarantee anonymity.Before: Marie has taken a managerial position a few years ago. She in a severe personal crisis, feeling overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. Her brain is spiraling, tricking her into a loop of self depreciation. It all originates, she says, in what she thinks other might think of her.
Step 1: Diving into the Worst
She starts by exploring her worst fears. She describes her biggest anxieties. What’s the worst that could happen?
Step 2: Acknowledging the Positive
She identifies any positives within these worst-case scenarios. This reframing exercise reveals silver linings, showing that not all is lost.
Step 3: Evaluating Outcomes
She categorizes her fears into three outcomes:
Not So Bad. (“ok I could live with that”)
Motivating Action. (“I should do something about that”)
Unrealistic. (“not in a million years would this happen”)
Step 4: Confronting Insecurities
Marie voices her deepest insecurities, realizing that the worst things she feared others might say were highly unlikely.
After: A Shift in Perspective
By the end of the session, Marie had a positive outlook, equipped to face future challenges with newfound structures, tools and resilience.
🗞️BREAKING NEWS / HOT LINKS
A fascinating article on why Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham walks alone on the pitch before matches. That’s what Visualisation is about!
A 4 min vertigo video about positive energy and rocking a party.”It’s a DJ’s job to take the crowd out of their heads, into their bodies”
The extraordinary 2002 13 minute short film Rosso fango illustrates perfectly one of my favorite parabol: who knows what is good and what is bad?
PS: Have you read my latest in-depth article on the acceleration?
My last linkedin post?
Take this 8 question test and get a free personnalized feedback?
Or even better, why don’t we have a chat? I’d love for you to be listened like never before.
Last thing, I would not want you to leave without a good playlist you can listen to while reading or just chilling.