Care as a response to Chaos…
After a long and productive day of team meetings in London yesterday, returning to my hotel room late in the evening, (somewhat foolishly on reflection now) I turned the news on.
Some words came to mind as I watched the stories unfold, and wrote them in my journal.
Conflict.
Confusion.
Calamities.
Commotion.
Conspiracies.
I didn’t invite those words into my thoughts; they simply arrived there.
We do, indeed, live in perilous times.
For some, there is a growing collective anxiety, as these c’s of chaos flooded into my mind.
“What can I do?” I thought.
Then I recalled one of Stephen Covey’s simple models mentioned earlier in the day, the circle of influence and control. Thankfully, it brought some peace to my mind.
The model reminds us that there are many things we are concerned about, yet there are only a smaller number of things we can truly influence.
The trouble begins when we spend too much emotional energy living in the outer circle, where the headlines, the geopolitics, the speculation, the fear and anxiety can flourish – if unchecked.
But when I consciously stepped back into my own circle of influence, something shifted for me.
In the quiet of the hotel room, I drew a simple circle on the hotel notepaper and wrote down the C’s that matter most to me.
I realised that I can choose a different set of C’s to live by.
Again, my mind returned to one of Aviva’s core values that we’d been talking about earlier in the day – care. As I did so, some other c’s came to mind…
Within my own circle of influence, I can choose care in how I treat others. I can practice compassion when fear shows up in a conversation. I can seek clarity in what I choose to watch and share. I can also cultivate calm rather than constant reaction. But above all I can act with courage by living my values quietly and consistently.
Of course, none of this will change the news headlines.
But it does change something closer to home.
It steadies my own inner world.
And perhaps, in some small way, it might help steady yours too.
Because when the C’s of chaos feel overwhelming, choosing the C’s of care within our own circle of influence, may be the most personal and the most powerful response we have.
Where can you choose care today?
