Welcome to the Our Moral Compass Podcast. Each daily reading focuses on a different quote on how we can best apply it to our own moral compass and one of the five areas in Social Emotional Learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision Making. Thank you for listening and we hope you consider subscribing to the podcast for future episodes.
Pivot Don’t Panic
“Pivot don’t panic during challenging times like this.”
-Jon Acuff
Anytime time I hear or read the word pivot my mind immediately goes to the classic TV Friends’ episode where Ross purchases a couch and recruits Rachel and Chandler to help him bring the couch up to his apartment. As they are moving the couch up the stairs due to the narrow staircase they manage to get it stuck between landings. In an effort to get them unstuck Ross decides to direct them on how to get out of each jam by yelling the word “Pivot!” in an effort to guide them in getting out of their predicament. As you can imagine this does not necessarily work well, only frustrating the group more and turns out to be the funniest and most memorable part of the episode.
For the purpose of today’s quote pivot plays a huge role in the area of self management. NY Times best selling author Jon Acuff reminds us that when we are faced with challenging times it is in our best interest to pivot and not panic. When we pivot we a turning or rotating something like a hinge or like in the sport basketball we may pivot ourselves on one foot trying to protect the ball from the opposing player or attempting to fake them out and make a move. There are times however the pivot move is not just a physical thing, it is a mental thing.
There have been times when we had to pivot in our thinking on how to handle certain situations as they arise. We’ve had to make necessary adjustments as things are happening in order to best regulate our thoughts, emotions and behaviors. By controlling our impulses it allows us to handle any crisis in a calm, cool and collected manner which is an important attribute to have as it also calms the water for all those involved (ie co workers, family members, etc). The worst thing you can do for yourself or others is to panic, because when you reach a level of panic, you have lost self-control and the repercussions can be damaging for all involved.
Even when something doesn’t necessarily work the first time this is when you pivot to the next idea or strategy until you find what works. This is where perseverance and grit play a huge role in pivoting because in life in order to reach a certain level of success we have to continuously make the necessary adjustments to get the desired results. So the next time you are faced with a challenge and you are unsure that you will overcome it, just remember to continue to pivot your way of thinking until you come out on the other side because you will. Just don’t give up.
What does this quote mean to you and how can you apply today’s message towards managing yourself better?
To subscribe to the daily blog via email please go to our website:
https://our-moral-compass.com/
Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Relaxing Piano Music” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
A special thank you to Feedspot for recognizing the Our Moral Compass podcast as one of the Top 10 Social Emotional Learning Podcasts on the internet. It is an honor to be amongst the other podcasts on this list as we all strive to make this world a better place.
Becoming The Change 