Following the AVE Gala, like every year, on the one hand I am very happy (being deeply impressed by what the award winners and their teams do) but on the other hand I also feel a distraught (thinking about the approximately 8,000 educational institutions where children need both the majority of school principals and teachers to approach the mindset and performance of those that are in the spotlight at the Gala).

I think that without a formula for identifying and rewarding these superheroes throughout the year, with only the best of the best making it to the Gala, scaling this will take us several hundred years.

My last article about happiness emphasizes the fact that many of us measure success simply by how happy we are most of the time. How others see our success (and I mean here „ours” in general not related to me or my colleagues), is a different story. How the current (mainly Western) society measures success at large, that’s another story too.

We all know there is a mixture of reasons, choices and actions leading to happiness/success. When it comes to professional success, however, I have been seeing quite a shift lately. Not yet a major one but on the verge to become one.

I strongly believe prolonged fear and anxiety (caused nowadays by the COVID-19 virus) might be more damaging than the virus itself. No one says not to think about it, ignore it or not to stay vigilant, but over-stressing about it does not help anyone.

And fear triggers the fight – flight – freeze response that instantly shifts the brain and body priorities to survive immediate danger ( i.e. reduced peripheral vision, non-essential body functions diminished, blood directed to larger muscles to help us “flight/fight”, narrowing the mind’s focus to anticipate and escape danger to the detriment of other functions, etc. ).