Anyone who has been on an airplane and even many who haven’t know the phrase, “Secure your own oxygen mask before helping those around you.”
When you get on an airplane, the flight attendant will tell you, in case of a loss of cabin pressure, there will be oxygen masks that will drop down. Make sure you secure your mask before helping those around you. The reason is simple, if you pass out, you won’t be able to do anything for anyone around you. Here is the difficult thing for many to get a hold of; It is entirely possible that you will have to watch your loved one pass out while you take care of your mask. The important detail is, they should only be unconscious for a short moment while you get your mask on then theirs. At which point, they have air again so they will regain consciousness and be okay. We have to be told the proper path because it is often instinctual or believed to be heroic to go and save the other person first. However, if you pass out while trying to help someone who perhaps can’t reach it on their own, then no one will help either of you and the consequences of that could be dire.
Over the years, I have thought in certain circumstances you need to apply that principle. As I have coached clients, I have noticed that there is a truth to this idea in so many different arenas and circumstances.
Of course, this won’t apply to every circumstance every time. I do believe that you might be surprised at how often it does. The clients that have unintentionally applied this principle to their whole lives have in fact neglected some small things in the beginning. However, now that they have secured their oxygen mask, or in most of their cases, created strong financial stability. They are able to go back to those who they perhaps had to leave behind or limit their time with and help them get a leg up with their resources otherwise unattainable.
A good example is a person from a neighborhood that doesn’t have the greatest opportunities. He decides that he will join the military, when he gets out, he stays away from his home town. He develops a business that wouldn’t be able to thrive in his home town and then once that is successful goes back. Although there is initial resentment for him “abandoning” his friends and loved ones, he is now actually in a position to help people.
Another example is a woman I know who is a midwife. Please forgive me, I don’t remember the actual numbers so I will be using made up ones to illustrate the point she made with me. She does a lot of humanitarian work, providing midwife services in impoverished nations. She mentioned that if she worked at her full capacity she could deliver something like 200 babies a year. However, if she kept that pace up, in five years or so she would no longer be able to work out of sheer exhaustion. Also, the long term effects would not be that helpful for the community.
On the other hand, if she spends her 5 years training local women on how to be midwives, she could train 20 or more on how to deliver babies. At the end of 5 years there would be 20 women who could deliver 100 babies a year without burning out. That is a sustainable function and one that could truly impact the community. If you’re like me and don’t want to do the math:
My friend delivering alone = 1,000 babies at the end of 5 years – too burnt out to continue.
My friend training midwives = maybe 50 babies per year in training = 250 babies at the end of 5 years.
This looks very discouraging when you compare 1,000 babies delivered safely to 250. However, just like loved ones being passed out for a moment on the plane; every subsequent year from 6 years on: 2,000 babies per year will be cared for by the midwives. At the end of 5 years, 10,000 babies delivered and the midwives still have the strength to keep going.
Where in your business or personal life are you sacrificing toward a goal that is unsustainable?
What are the action steps that you are going to take to change that?
What is the metaphorical loved one that might have to pass out momentarily in order for you to have a sustainable life?
