Secret Strategies for Navigating Through This Difficult Time - John Assaraf

Hey there. Good morning. Hope you're doing great, John. Achieve even more. This is a very interesting time in the history of our species, our cultures, and there is a massive pandemic going on. It is getting more and more serious with each day, with so many confusing messages, confusing stories, confusing ideas, confusing to do's. And so let's have a serious discussion about the COVID 19 pandemic. I'll give you some strategies and some tactics of what I'm doing so you can remain calm and respond when so many people are in a state of fear and panic and worry and doubt and are practicing what I call is catastrophic thinking. And I'll share with you what's happening in your brain when you are focusing on all of the negative over and over again, all the negative possibilities over and over again. If that sounds like a good topic for us, leave me one question that you have right now. And if you can hear me and see me, fine, just hit the like or the love button. All right, so again, if you just joined, we're talking about the COVID 19 pandemic. And I'll share with you what I'm doing with my wife's doing. I don't know how many of you joined us. Last night, my wife did a wine and cheese party. We're going to start doing some fun stuff as well, since we are, you know, at home. We've been at home for nine days now. We've been only going out to get food and. And that's it. So does that sound like a good topic to talk about today? And do you have any questions? If you have any questions, you know, put them in there. If. If it sounds like a good idea, hit the, like a love button. Leave me a question if you can tell me where you're from as well. Hi there, Anita from Sweden. I'll wait for a few people to join us. Hi there. Chris Bodon. Always good to see you, Patty. Hello there, from nj. You guys are getting hit so hard. Patty, I'm so, so sorry for your whole community. All right, so. So how do you stay calm in this pandemic? In the storm? I am pretty fortunate. I get to see the ocean, you know, every day. And I always am reminded by the ocean. I love the ocean. I love to swim in the ocean. I love to be on boats. Have you ever seen that TV show, What is it? The Deadliest Catch? Has anybody seen the Deadliest Catch? Patty? I will talk about that. Hi there, Maria from Romania. Chifaci Faci Bini. My mother's Romanian Ali. Hello there. From Ontario. I used to live in Mississauga. So I want to just share a story from you, Satish. Hello there. So have you ever seen the movie or, I'm sorry, the TV show the Deadliest Catch? It's the show where the Alaskan fishermen, you know, they go and fish in the coldest of weather, in the wildest waters in the middle of winter. And they're in these, you know, 120 foot, 150, 180 foot vessels catching crab and all that kind of stuff. Anybody seen that? Hello there. Satish from New York City. Very, very challenging. Allison. South Africa. Love it. So in the Deadliest Catch, right, the captain of the ship needs to learn over a period of time through apprenticeship, how to navigate the roughest, toughest seas. Because if they don't and if they're not prepared under every possible condition, people die. They may die, the boat may capsize and you only have, you know, a minute or two in these frigid, cold waters. Now why am I bringing up, you know, this, you know, analogy or story right around the Deadliest Catch and the captains who have to man their vessels so that they can a catch their bounty but also survive. And the answer is it takes them years of practicing and working on a ship to understand the oceans under every condition, the weather, how to manage their team, etc. Because life is on the line for them, right? Every day that they're out there, that the seas are not calm, life is on the line. Right? Would you agree with that? If you agree, say John. I agree. And by the way, tell me where you're from. Hi there. Mara Arena Servus from Hungary, Kent Davis. Hello there. From Colorado, where I'm supposed to be right now. Hold on a second. The sun just came out so I should put on, put on my hat so I can keep seeing what you're saying. Hello there, from Dublin, Dave. Hello there. Joanna from Wyoming as well, I think. I see. Okay, so back to the Deadliest Catch, right? So these captains of the ship have people's lives on the line and so they have to know every possible circumstance and scenario, right? Pretty simple, of course. Captain of a, you know, vessel in, you know, in some of the deadliest, roughest seas in the world. So they have to be extremely skilled. So where some people, okay, don't survive, others thrive. And so the reason I wanted to bring this up for you is this. When I take a look at this COVID 19. I take a look at the seriousness of it. I take a look at people that are Serious. The people that are not. The misinformation that's out there, the stories and reasons and excuses that people aren't taking it seriously, and the ones that are, we're going to find a whole slew of people with a variety of beliefs, perspectives, paradigms, habits, and that's just life. You know, for every video that I do, I have people that go, wow, John, thank you. And then I also have people go, wow, that's a bunch of bullshit, and it's crap and it's useless and stupid. I've come to realize that, number one, I cannot be in the convincing business. I'm in the business of doing the research to the best of my abilities and then researching the research to make sure that it's valid and then making decisions for myself, my clients, and the people who follow my work. So the first thing I will share with you is if you were to look at a graph of this virus, okay, it's not as contagious as chicken pox, but it is more deadly than chickenpox. So even though fewer people are going to get it, more people will die as a result of it. And we know from the research that chances are it's, you know, people over 65 with, you know, heart issues, type 1, type 2 diabetes, lung issues, breathing issues, upper respiratory issues. That's the. The majority of people. So there's a couple of options you can have. You're thinking of, well, you know, I don't fit into that category. Or I do, and you can say, I don't give a shit and I'm going to do whatever I want. But then that's also saying that I don't care if I get it and give it to somebody else. And that, I believe, is myopic thinking, not being considerate of other human beings. Four out of five people who are passing it on to other people don't even know they have it. So you don't know how many people may infect you or how many people you infect. And so just be aware of that and then make decisions not just for yourself, but how does it impact your household, your neighborhood, your community, your city, the region and the world? And so just be aware of that information and then make decisions based on your own value system. I'm not going to change your value system. The only thing I can do is give you some information to take a look at what may be happening. So that's part one, the other part of this entire pandemic, which is really more of what I want to talk about. Is all around, what do you do? Right. So if you are, I'm going to go back to, you know, using the deadliest catch, you know, the ocean and the, you know, the captain of these vessels that have to navigate through the treacherous waters. This is a treacherous time. It's unprecedented since the Great Depression. There will be more people who lose jobs in the next week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks since the Great Depression. The stock market has lost 30% in a month. Not since the Great Depression. As that happened. More businesses will close in the next 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, because they're shut down or they run out of money and their employees have gone on welfare or furloughed, et cetera. So we have a major storm on our hands. And so the question to ask yourself or to be aware of first and foremost is a reality check about what's really going on. Part, part one. All right, and then what are your priorities? And my suggestion would be to consider, you know, are your priorities your health first, the health of your family first, your finances, your business, your job, what are your priorities? And I'm not going to tell you what to prioritize. I have mine, my family has theirs. What I will share with you though is you're going to make your decisions based on your highest values, your beliefs and your perspectives. So the first thing is get in alignment with what your highest values are so that you could be making decisions based on your highest values. So for example, many of you know that my second highest value is my health, which is spiritual, emotional, mental and physical health. I categorize health in four categories. So 10 days ago or so, my wife and I and my mother in law, we decided to, you know, be in not self quarantine but self isolation for the last nine days and to only go out to get food or medicine if we need any. And that's what works for us. So make your decisions based on your highest value so you know that the important stuff for you is taken care of. If that sounds like a good first start, let me know and I'm going to give you a few more tips. Just let me know. Hit the like or love button. Tell me John, that makes total sense or John, that's a bunch of bullshit, I'm okay with either one. As I mentioned, I'm not in the convincing business. I'm in the research and sharing and teaching business to help people achieve outstanding results. So let's say you have your values in order. Then the next question that comes around, this is this. If you're the captain of a ship on the Deadliest Catch. All right. And there is a major winter storm, storm that you've never seen before. Hundred foot swells. It's, it's hailing, it's snowing, it's raining. The, the, the currents are going in opposite directions, the boat's going up and down. You cannot do any fishing. You, you have to hold on for dear life. One of the things that is really important to understand is when you cannot control the situation. When you cannot control the situation, you have to control yourself even more. Somebody type that out for me please. When you cannot control the situation, you have to control yourself even more. And you have to be hyper diligent and hyper focused. All right? You have to be hyper diligent and hyper focused. And the way I like to. Organized stuff. First and foremost, when your brain is faced with so many unpredictable things, our brain has got four core responsibilities. One, survival. Two is avoidance of pain. Three, conservation of energy. Four, gain pleasure. But when you think that maybe your financial health is under attack, your brain's amygdala goes into high gear and activates sounds, the bells and the alarms. Because that affects your livelihood, that affects your family, your eating, your food, your shelter, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And so your brain is going to be on freaking high alert, watching the news, listening, reading, paying attention to what's going on just in case it gets worse. So when we're in a state of high alert, that sympathetic nervous system of ours is kicked in and cortisol and epinephrine and adrenaline is flowing through our bloodstream and that's what causes the feeling of stress and anxiousness. And when we feel that way and we have self doubt and maybe we don't have the skills to navigate through this massive storm, then guess what we do? Fear. And then fear may lead to reacting in a panicky way. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? That is what's happening in your brain and your body that's leading to this loop of uncontrollable, in some cases, thoughts and emotions and behaviors and a lot of stress. Now ask yourself this question. I'm going to go back to my analogy of the Deadliest Catch. If you were the captain of the ship and you had 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 people to take care of, including yourself, which is a better state to be in? In a stressed anxiety, panicky, fearful state or in an aware, alert, calm state that you can respond in? Please answer that question. Which one? The fearful? Doubtful. Which one is the best state to be in, right, Your state will determine your behaviors. And so which is the better state? In a state of stress, anxiety, doubt, lacking confidence, fear and panic, or the other side of awareness, alertness, calmness and responsiveness instead of reactiveness? So I think all of you. Hi there, Heather Thurman. Thanks for all your nice comments all the time. Paul. Hello, Allison. Hello, Bodan. Hello. Right, so here, you have to get this, okay? Calmness is within you, so is stress. Responsiveness is within you, so is reactiveness. See, they're both internal mental and emotional states that with some practice, you can get better at it. So you don't become a captain of a ship, okay? Or, you know, know a fishing vessel, you know, in a weekend, and then go out in the deadliest seas. And so one of the things that you have to look for yourself is when you're starting to feel stressed, fearful, panicky, acting abruptly, and thinking in catastrophic ways. See, catastrophizing a situation, okay, is mostly in your imagination, mostly your imagination. However, there may be some reality to what you're thinking, but are you better off thinking about what the potential negative, disempowering, awful, yucky, shitty, terrible things could happen? Are you better off focusing on that or being aware that those are possibilities and teaching yourself to focus on what you can do? When we are catastrophizing, when we are thinking about all of the negative implications if this happens, if this happens. If this happens, this happens. Oh, my God. Oh, no. Well, how will I feel? And we start living in the future or even in the present moment, okay? With all of the catastrophizing, negative, disempowering thoughts and emotions, we increase the rate at which we move towards that outcome versus saying that is a possibility. Now, here is my strategy. Here's what I can do. So I'm going to go back to how do you stay in a calm, relaxed state? Hey there, Shasheen. How do you stay in a calm, relaxed state if calmness and relaxation, alertness is within you? It's a state within you. I don't mean the state of Colorado or New York, right? It's a state, a state of mind and a state of emotions that is possible within you. How do you get yourself calm? Wouldn't that be the first order of business? Wouldn't that be the first order of business? And what I will share with you is in the next, I think, two days, I will be giving everybody nine free inner sizes that I'm going to give the world as my gift to help you stay focused and calm. Relaxed and aware. We're just getting the pages raised. I could just give it away to the world. We normally sell them. But now is not the time to be concerned about that. Hey there, Gene. Right, so how do you get calm? If calmness and alertness and responsiveness is a state that you could be in, how do you get there? So Michelle says, meditation, exercise, focus, breathing, mindfulness. Right, breathing, mindfulness, learning how to flip the switch from one to another. Mindfulness allows you to be in a state of awareness of your thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations and behaviors. How? Calm down. Don't slow down, calm down. And so the key is to learn how to put yourself in a state where you are actually using your brain better. When you are in a catastrophic thinking mindset, you're actually activating what I call is that right Prefrontal cortex, the Frankenstein's monster part of your brain. And when Frankenstein's monster starts to roll with all the possible negative things that could go wrong, you keep refiring the cells in your brain that release the neurochemicals of stress. And in that stressful state, you're actually shutting down the very part of your brain that you need, which is the Einstein part of your brain that left prefrontal cortex that can keep you calm. And I can use your intelligence and genius within you to say, okay, what can I do for my health right now? What can I do for the health of my family? Make some smart decisions there. What can I do for my mindset right now? What can I do for my emotional well being right now? What can I do for my physical well being? And what can I do right now? Okay, for my financial well being. And, and so I know that some of you are going to say, but, John, I just lost my job, John, I just laid off employees, John, I just had to close my business. And I'm going to say, okay, I get that. I'm sorry. I fully understand. Now, if we were to take a sheet of paper, okay, and put a line down the middle and on the right side, okay, say here's all the things that are impacted as a result of losing my job, as a result of letting employees go, as a result of closing my doors, as a result of. Here's all the stuff that's happening or happened. Here's the results of that, and then ask one more question. Now what can I do? How do I become resourceful right freaking. Now, see, for some of you, your livelihood is on the line. So let's not pull any punches that it's not. Some of you will Lose your jobs, some of you will lose your businesses, some of you. That's just the reality. However. However, when would now be a good time to start figuring out what the f to do? All right, we don't have a lot of time. You don't have time on your side if you're out of Runway. Does that make sense? If you're out of Runway, you. You've got to figure out how to build a damn airplane again. And all of your energy, all your attention, all of your focus has to be on that. So I'll give you an example. One of our clients, Linda, she's in one of my private business consulting groups called Escape Velocity 212. Linda owns a Pilates studio. Linda's got to be, you know, in her 50s, maybe even 60. She has a Pilates studio. People come to do Pilates, you know, with her every day. And it's like, john, I have to close my doors. I said, okay, you've got to close your doors, but you don't have to close your business because. What do you mean? I said, linda, why not do private classes with your clients using technology? Use Zoom, do one on ones and take your client, your clients who still want to stay in shape during this. They're trying to figure, how am I going to stay in shape? How am I going to, you know, maintain my own mental and emotional and physical health? She I said, why not also do math classes where you film from your house? Use Zoom. They could see you on their cell phones, they could see you on their computers. And be resourceful, get creative. Well, she says, oh, wow, I guess I could learn to do that. Well, guess what she did, like five days ago, she did her first class. It was clumsy. It was like, oh, my God, John, I didn't know where the buttons were. I really don't know how to use the technology. Well, yesterday she did a few classes all day long, and guess what? Her clients showed up and, and some friends of theirs even showed up on their computers. They were all self, self contained. So the thing that I want you to be aware of is this. Every morning when you wake up, you have a certain number of attention units in your brain. I'm always going to bring this back to your brain every morning. You have a certain number of attention units in your brain, and you can either use those attention units to focus on all the shit that's happening, all the problems, all the stuff that's not working, and think of the mess that it's leaving in its wake, or you can say, what am I going to do about it? How do I need to think? How do I need to feel? What do I need to do to shift, adjust and make the best out of the situation? Now, for some of us, this will be a great time. For others of us, it's going to be a very, very challenging time. So you have to be prepared for that. Use your attention, use your focus to figure out what can I do? And if you say to yourself, but I don't know, ask yourself a better question, who might know? Can I google it? What can I learn? What book? What course? What coach, what program? What mastermind? What can I do? Is a different focus of your energy. Attention versus the problem. There's solutions oriented focusing or problem oriented focusing. Solution oriented focusing means you're activating Einstein. Problem oriented focusing means you're activating Frankenstein's monster. You have a genius prefrontal cortex, the most powerful biocomputer in the known universe. Use it wisely. Right now, this is where you learn to be the captain of the ship at even greater challenging times and crazy chaotic seas. This is a moment that will define you. And either you will use it to lift you up or it'll be very painful experience. So listen, my business has been challenged because of, you know, live events that we do. And we started shifting two weeks ago from doing some of our live events, are doing virtual events, calibrating, you know, clients, programs, emails, videos. We've been recalibrating for two weeks now to adjust, adopt, adjust, adopt, become resourceful. And so the thing that I really want you to really be aware of is your focus right now is critical. Okay, not. It would be nice to kind of sort of, this is where you can redefine who you are, build your character, upgrade your identity, you know, instead of just survive. What about folks, how can I thrive? Now? The thriving part may not come in, you know, in one day or three days, but over 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, you could be on a really good trajectory to be better than you were. It'll take some time. It'll take upgrading your knowledge, it'll take upgrading your skills. It'll take you changing. And the only human that likes change is a wet baby. So get good at change right now. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. If you need to learn technology, learn some technology. Upgrade your knowledge, upgrade your skills right now. Okay? And if you want to see my team, just set up a training that we just did on three keys to accelerating your income and wealth in these challenging times. You're more than welcome to watch that free training as well. So that is what I've got for you today. All right. In times of change like this, the world didn't stop. The world just changed in basically a week. And so everything's changing right now. Make change your friend. Upgrade your knowledge, upgrade your skills. If you were complacent before, this is going to knock you out of complacency. All right? So, all right, there's. There is your 25 minute or 26 minute pow wow from me. Every Tuesday morning I'm here. I'm not going to sugarcoat this, my friend. I'm going to give it to you, you know, real. This is what's going on, you know, many a couple years, two, three years ago, I was in the Galapagos and the Galapagos, you know, where Darwin was and saw the animals and. And this is really okay. If there was ever a time okay. For adaptation, right. It's right now. So survival of the fittest doesn't just mean physically survival of the fittest mentally, survival of the fittest emotionally, survival of the fittest financially, survival of the fittest spiritually. Right. So there is a higher order that's governing, you know, in my opinion. Right. All of life. And so how do you use this so that you are surfing the wave instead of being crashed by the wave? Okay. All right, so there's a link below if you want to see some additional training on what did the top people do, you know, to achieve success in the midst of crisis. So whether it's Colonel Sanders or Oprah or Jay Z, I did a little video training that we just put out today for you to be able to see it. There's a link below. Thanks so much. Appreciate you. See you next Tuesday. If you like this, hit the share button. Let's share it with the world. I don't want people to react and, you know, out of panic. I want them to respond out of calmness. I want them to upgrade their knowledge and their skills and I want them to change their behaviors so that they navigate through this massive storm. And together we can help each other do this. If you want to help me, please hit the share button. Have an awesome day. Appreciate you. Hit the like, hit the love. I'll give you high fives in the meantime while you do that, while you share, I'll say hello to a few people. Hi there, Martha. Tony Blanchard. Oh, Don. You're welcome, Dina. God bless you too, dear. Michelle. Hey, Michelle. Word lady. Cheryl Barber. Hello. Mara. Katya. Katya. Thank you. Michael Patterson. Thank you, Shelly. Thank you, Heather. Thanks again, as always. Actually, the sun's out, so I can. The sun's behind the clouds now, so I can take my glass off. Kent Davis. Hello there, Samir. Hello, Lisa. Hello. If I say your name, just hit the the like button so I know you hear me. Trisha and Valerie and Stacey, Stephen and Shannon and Martin and Dina. Shasheen. Hey, buddy. Nice to see you. I wish I was skiing with you, my friend. My buddy Shasheen and I, we ski. He used to live in Telluride. He's in Santa Fe and he's got a killer book coming out. I will make sure you all know about it. Hi there. Charlotte and Rami, thank you for sharing this. Have an awesome day. I appreciate you so much. I'll see you next Tuesday. By the way, we're going to be doing a whole bunch more just get togethers, collaborate. I'm going to be doing live streams. We're setting up a calendar for you to be able to have. And I'll keep posting it and my team will keep posting it. All right, bye, everyone. Thanks.