Feeling Broken By the Times? It’s Not Just You – It’s FUD.
We are not broken.
Coming to the end of another pandemic year, we may feel broken from the constant FUD occupying our daily minds. “What is FUD?” you ask. FUD is Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt – and FUD has become inseparable from our lives since COVID first hit.
We may feel broken – but what we are experiencing at this moment is a loss of agency, not a breaking of the spirit. We may not feel whole when we are consumed with the burnout that FUD brings, but our emotions are part of what makes us human – and even when they may feel negative, they are not a problem to solve, but rather, an advantage to harness.
We humans have always lived with the challenges of FUD. It is part of the human experience. We have not, however, previously recognized its impact on our wellbeing, our work performance, and our culture as a whole. Burnout is not new to our workplaces – the reality is that most companies have, over the years, cultivated a competitive burnout culture in pursuit of peak performance – but it is perhaps more prevalent now than ever before. Through recognition of the effects of burnout, and open communication, we now know that is not how peak performance is achieved – rather, it is achieved through care.
Strong foundations are built on collective care.
Imagine explaining your passion project to a friend: the energy, the excitement, the courage in your voice. The tangible feeling of fulfillment and joy. Now imagine telling that same person about a project you perform out of duty, but are concerned will not fare well. In the former you are able to give yourself to the emotion of the moment, without resentment or hesitation; in the latter, you robotically perform the task at a great cost to your inner self. The gap in those sentiments is where we lose ourselves to FUD, the exhaustion of basic survival– we are pushing ourselves to perform, but without a “why” that’s aligned with our own fulfillment, we are instead driven by fear of not being good, fast, or smart enough. We lose ownership of our own work and with that we wear out instead of growing.
The last two years have been, as we all know too well, unprecedented times. Routine has been impossible, and control, fleeting. What will pull the rug out from under us next? We work from home, which has blurred the lines between worry-free zones of time-out and our accessibility at all and odd hours. As leaders we are concerned about our people and their health and wellbeing, well knowing they are under pressure to adapt to new ways of working too.
Additionally, every day, we live with the fear of contracting an omnipresent virus and passing it on to loved ones, and through domino effect, to the immune compromised and elderly. What repercussions may our actions unwittingly cause? Every day is another straw on the camel’s back. It’s. All. One. Big. FUD. But if we take a pause and consider the greater goal, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Reclaiming Agency
We have the power to change. That mental adaptability is also a part of what makes us human. It is true that without a sense of agency and control over our lives, we may fall into hypercritical self evaluation. We may be hard on ourselves for not having it together, not constantly performing at maximum efficiency. But it is of utmost importance that we allow that humanity in by admitting to ourselves that it is entirely normal to internalize these feelings. It is entirely normal to experience the FUD. The key to harnessing the advantage is in accepting these facts and adjusting focus from the uncertainty on to whatever next steps are within our control.
Reclaiming our agency lies in giving ourselves that moment of pause and reflection that we ultimately wield this power of change, and can choose at any time to reframe our situation around what power we do have.
We already have the power.
Think about it this way: let's say we have plans to go shopping. Let's say it starts to rain. What do we do? Do we spend time being upset and cancel? Or do we grab raincoats and umbrellas to cope with the rain so that we can still go shopping as planned? This is a simple example of a typical situation where we simply pause for a moment, and choose a different way to deal with what is right there in front of us. We already know how to change our choices so that we can keep moving forward. We need to apply that same mental toolset to be adaptable so we can keep showing up every day during times of stress and adversity.
It’s just an umbrella, but now, as we step into the world, we are ready for it. Such a small shift has a huge impact in how we think and therefore engage with our own feelings and emotions, with how we show up and act with true agility and agency.
Another example was the time I was the care-giver for my dad, for the last five months of his terminal cancer. Every day was a new challenge that I could not predict. His well-being changed, and so did his needs, as his cancer progressed. Just as the rain is beyond our control, his changing needs were beyond my control. I had to find the ability to respond to what was right there in front of me, without getting stuck in what I had planned or expected and especially without getting stuck in the fear of what was going on. The acceptance that I gave myself to not know or be in control, allowed me to navigate our time together with curiosity, courage, and compassion rather than anxiety, anger, and fear. I am grateful that it is in that grace my father and I spent his last moments.
Whether it is an assignment at work, a day out with friends, or the last moments with a loved one– we have the power to address, face, and deal with our FUD and reclaim our agency to act with intention and purpose. As human beings we have the unique ability to pause, shift our focus onto what we care about, what is in our power, and what matters, so that we can choose how to best achieve the desired result and change our actions accordingly.
Intention fuels action.
The conclusion is this: if we focus on the FUD, that's where we will stay. We will be overwhelmed and lost in a life outside our control. If we focus on what we want to achieve and ask ourselves what we need to do so, we will reclaim our ability to make discerning choices and have our sense of agency restored. As the saying goes; We cannot control what happens but we can control what we do with it. We must take pause and be intentional about how we think, engage and act. In doing so we will discover the incredible empowerment of self-care.
Start by pausing for just a moment and ask yourself, what do I need right now so that I can…? Whatever is facing you right now. It’s a simple mantra that can refocus your mind and bring you back home to the power that lives inside of you.
