There are plenty of things going on in the news and around the world right now. The President has declared a National Emergency which gives the Administration the ability to release additional resources as our Congress slowly works on legislation while stacking on non-essential earmarks and the Senate leaves for the weekend.
There is a ton of misinformation on the internet going around. Thanks to a guy sitting in seat 21C who couldn’t cover his mouth while coughing during my last flight home, I know this firsthand. I have had to do my own research after returning from travel this week. As I sat in seat 20A, I had a mask in my bag I used to sell while at Galls during the Avian Flu scare. Not sure if it helped or hurt since the company who made it discontinued them. All the same I am held up in my camper, away from my wife and daughter, for the next few days to see if I come down with anything as a precaution. Today during a conference call my company’s management team, including myself, discussed procedures and how we will respond if employees become infected. We quickly got things lined out and I was able to point them to a product that can be used to sanitize our entire building if needed.
In a former company, I had a Director who used to say, “You are stuck in your own logic bubble.” Sometimes it was a sarcastic statement where he agreed with my assessment but knew there was nothing he or I could do to change a decision made above our pay grade. In those cases, we would chuckle about it but it helped to refocus our efforts where we could deliver the best possible result. He also sometimes used it as a way to challenge me to consider looking at a much larger picture. Those times were moments of considerable growth for me professionally and often personally.
You have probably heard of or studied the idea of a feedback loop, though it may not have been termed this. Generally defined at Dictionary.com, a feedback loop is the path by which some of the output is returned to the input. This creates a cyclical system. The term has been applied to electronics, biology, ecology, sociology, and psychology. As it applies to human behavior, we have all heard a number of expressions that reinforce the idea.
“You reap what you sow.”
“What goes around comes around.”
“You are what you eat.”
“Karma is a ….”
Last week I talked about the concept of Embrace the Suck and a Feedback Loop seemed like a logical next topic. With respect to human behavior, too often these days we get stuck in one echo chamber or another narrowing our focus to a group of people who think and act the same as us. These echo chambers serve as a Feedback Loop where the message that fits your feelings/beliefs get looped back into it cyclically. When this happens, especially in politics, we somehow get “surprised” when others might have a different opinion. This illustrates that Feedback Loops can be negative. However, they can also be positive.
Embrace the Suck is all about attitude and so is a Feedback Loop as it relates to mindset. They say it is hard to be sad if you are smiling. The point being that positive attitudes beget positive attitudes. It feeds into itself and your input becomes part of the output.
Now sarcastically, I could say, I am “positive” that if I get COVID-19 the image I snapped of the guy in 21C is going viral, pun intended. But that is not the “positivity” that I am talking about. There are so many messages that hit our subconscious everyday and honestly most of them are negative. If you are constantly watching the news, social media feeds or even ads trying to sell you one product over another with a reference toward personal image you might be experiencing a feeling of doom, be overwhelmed or have low self-worth because “you” are not enough.
This week I had the opportunity to travel with one of my company’s manufacturer representative groups. Like most of our rep groups, they are highly successful because of how they view their role and the customers they serve. Not one of them were ever negative. Sure, there are things that don’t happen or work out but they focused their energy positively. During a ride-along Brian, one of the Rep Principles, talked about a book his family uses at home to write down something they are thankful or grateful for every day. We also talked about the Lenten practice of giving up something. He challenged me to do something outward for others versus inward. I was glad for the interaction and it illustrates an example of not being in your own echo chamber or logic bubble. He presented different ideas of equal value. Now if my attitude were negative. I may not have received them well. But with a positive attitude, I found value in two things that challenged my current habits.
You can find many examples in life where some of the output becomes part of the input. In all cases I can think of, our attitudes going into it, whether good or bad, have a major impact on whether that feedback loop is positive or negative. What we feed our minds is the key. While there are some pretty tough issues and differences we face as a nation. If you think about it, many of those issues find their source of conflict stemming from traditional moral values versus personal social justification. This isn’t the time or place to even attempt to tackle those conflicts.
The conflict at hand is mindset or attitude and how you can feed it positively. I know many people who have turned off their TV’s, social media, cell phones and generally unplugged. They are now happier because they are no longer feeding their minds with an overabundance of the negative. It is the negative that creates fear and fear keeps us seeking more information in an attempt to avoid harm or unrest. That is a loop, in times like these, we need to avoid.
For those who enjoy the great outdoors, being connected with nature offers the positive. That connection gets us away from talking heads, worrying about “Likes” and focused on Creation. If you have ever watched a thunderstorm roll in and out, the idea of a Yin-Yang makes sense. Our ecosystem, like our own bodies, is constantly working toward balance. Or maybe, you are a Star Wars fan. Consider the thunderstorm as a “Disturbance in the Force”. Scientifically, energy is neither created nor destroyed but changed from one form to another. While our nation grips with the overbuying of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and yes, even guys who don’t cover their mouths when they cough, understand that we will come back to a balance. This storm will pass. Some of the output from this will become part of the input. Whether that Feedback Loop is positive or negative depends on us. No matter what, we will learn much about ourselves and our nation as a whole. I will put my energy into positive things and focus on keeping my family safe as best as I can. My first step being to delete the photo of the guy in seat 21C while ordering a gratitude book. Next, I will look forward to the moment I get to hold my wife and daughter while praying for those who have lost their lives and most at risk.
- L. Yarbrough, Bucks & Beers
