Safety

Psychological safety is a really big issue in the workplace today. That’s awesome. It can be a stair step, creating trust and engagement. It can be a stair step to Responsibility.

This ia about safety in a different context – as an element of our beingness and of our perceptual frame today.

My mentor has always said to me, “Only the brave get to be free.” If you have a high need for safety, it’s going to be challenging for you to practice Responsibility at a high level.

Philosophers and psychologists say that most people don’t want freedom, most people just want safety.

This matches my experience of sharing The Responsibility Process® with others. They get inspired by the chart – but then they try to apply it to their own lives.

They realize they have to grow and change in order to have the freedom that it promises. Then, they say it doesn’t work.

Do you know someone who is afraid of everything? That person has a very high need for safety.

Do you know someone who is courageous, and operates with great abandon? That person has a high sense of freedom.

You’ve heard about comfort zones, the zone we feel comfortable operating inside. When we get to the edges of that space, we feel anxious. Some people keep really small comfort zones – that’s high safety.

A lot of us need approval, and that stops us from taking action because we’re worried about what other people will think. That’s a need for safety.

In many parts of our lives we’re overly concerned with safety. That means holding onto our past reality, as opposed to, growing & experiencing a new reality.

Here’s something that you can do this week.

Make a reminder for yourself on your smartphone, your tablet, your laptop, every one of your systems. Make a reminder that pops up a couple times a day that simply says, “Safety? Or freedom?”

That’s a great place to start, because it will force you to ask yourself several times a day about your priorities. What’s more important to you? Hanging onto a past, contrived, reality – or, creating a new reality based in freedom, power, and choice.