Want peace?

Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.  ~Wayne W. Dyer

I came across this quote by Wayne Dyer a week ago and I've been contemplating how it might relate to leaders and leadership. 

Have you ever met someone who appears to be so unflappable that it doesn't seem believable?  Maybe it even makes you angry because you think they are faking it?  Whatever life throws in their direction they seem to take it all in stride; they go with the flow regardless of difficulties, challenges or even tragedies that come their way?

Maybe it's not fake.  Maybe it's the result of years of retraining their mind to process life simply as it is.    Processing life as you think it should be is a never-ending uphill battle.  How we think life should be quite frequently doesn't align with how it is.  So we're putting ourselves in a no-win situation. 

The year 2008 changed reality for everyone.  We frequently heard the phrase "the new economy" and many other descriptors for how life now was, for the moment and the foreseeable future.  Despite the changes, many people tried (some for years) to process life as they thought it should be.  Investments should provide a handsome return, property values should only increase, and the job market should be a buyer's market.  The people who were determined to process life as they thought it should be, lost, a lot, not just finances, but even peace seemed no longer attainable.

One of several reasons that I now believe this quote is very applicable to leaders and leadership, is because of research on my own blog.  I'm approaching nearly 100 blog posts and by far the most read post was entitled, "The Death Drive and Leadership."  In my very little world, this is the post that went viral.  My definition of going viral is far more people read this post than are on my email list, which means it was either shared or somehow discovered through online searches.  That tells me not every leader out there is at "peace" if reading about the death drive is what’s most intriguing in my 90+ posts about leadership.

Maybe it's time we started working on retraining our minds, and yes, that really is possible.  But you could ask Wayne Dyer and a host of psychologists or brain scientists and they are likely to tell you that it takes lots of practice and lots of time.  One source I discovered suggested it takes six to nine months.  I recall someone I know who was in a car accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury.  Part of his recovery was to retrain a part of his brain to assume new functions and it took a good six months.

I suppose it comes down to how much it's worth to you.  Do you want to be the leader who appears unflappable?  Do you want to be the leader who can take whatever life (or employees, or the economy, or clients) throws your way and you manage through it with grace and ease?   Do you want to be that leader who always seems at peace?  Then maybe six to nine months of retraining your mind to process life as it is, is a small price to pay.