One of my friends Melanie* is one of the most resilient people I know. She has faced plenty of adversity in her life and what I love about her most is that her resilience and ability to deal with challenges makes her a great mentor and advisor. She has helped me through some tougher times and always offers a short quote or one line piece of advice that just sticks.
One of these is “Go to ground”.
The first time Melanie said this, she was talking about a problem that had emerged. She was in the midst of leading a large team and balancing some personal issues. She was feeling all the pressure that comes from business and family responsibilities.
We were having a chat and I offered support by having the kids come over to our place to give her some time and space. Melanie thanked me and said, “This is great as it will give me some time to go to ground”. I asked her about what that meant for her as I was curious. She explained that going to ground for her was about engaging in stillness and being quiet. This is what she needed to enable her to think, let ideas emerge and work out a starting position to understand the problems she faced and how to address them.
I now regularly engage in “go to ground” strategies and encourage other leaders to do this too. This mindset reminds me that I need to shut out the noise so the answer to my problem can emerge. It always does. It does take patience and it is effective in helping me to avoid the push or pull it through strategy, which is often short sighted and just moves the real problem down the road to deal with later.
Your go to ground strategy can include a variety of activities. I would encourage you to start with identifying what you need. Is it space, time, dialogue, movement, even rest.
Some ideas may include:
🚀 Mind map the problem you are facing to help you understand and explore the issue
🚀 Spend time in nature- water or greenery is often soothing
🚀 Be still
🚀 Be active
🚀 Listen to or play music
🚀 Draw
🚀 Read
🚀 Engage in mindful breathing
🚀 Sleep
Knowing that you have a” go to ground strategy” will help you feel comforted that in tough times, you have internal resources that you can draw upon to assist you in unlocking the answer you need.
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