The Walking Dead: Motivational strategies to deal with the finale
By Susie Graham
If you’re still dealing with post finale The Walking Dead issues, perhaps some traditional business motivation strategies might help you adjust.
I don’t have a business background, but even in education we were exposed to business strategies for success. It occurred to me, and you’ll find out the strange reason how a little later, that perhaps those strategies might come in handy for us over the summer for walker withdrawals, especially this year with the frustrating cliffhanger finale.
A few of the big ones that we had as trainings were The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and The Fish Philosophy by Stephen Lundin. I thought it might be fun to apply these principles to The Walking Dead finale.
At the end, I have a few of my own little motivation strategies to offer that I’ve been taught over my life from my parents and from my glorious life experiences.
The Seven Habits
I will lay out the basic ideas and let you take your own Walking Dead wisdom from them.
- Habit 1: Be proactive: We can’t control what happens to us; we can only control how we respond to it. Act don’t react. Think ahead.
- Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind: Think about how things are going to look at the finish line and work backwards. Start with the big picture. What are your goals?
- Habit 3: Put first things first: Focus on what’s important, not merely what presents itself as urgent. Don’t get distracted by the wrong things.
- Habit 4: Think Win-Win: You want to consider your needs, but you want to consider the needs of others, too. You don’t want to be a bully or a doormat.
- Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood: The way to think win-win starts with trying to see the other’s point of view before expressing your own. People don’t listen to your point of view unless they feel you understand theirs.
- Habit 6: Synergize: True teamwork can result in better and different results than individual work alone. Consider the sound of instruments alone and together.
- Habit 7: Sharpen the saw: Take time to recharge and keep your saw sharp so you’re not using dull tools. Relax. Do things you enjoy. Take a break! Come back even sharper.
The Fish Philosophy
- Play: Have fun with whatever you do. The Walking Dead family is famous for memes. With the finale, perhaps don’t take it so seriously. Stop with the petitions and the theories for a minute.
- Be there: Be present and not in the past or the future. For the finale, perhaps watch again and really experience the fear and the claustrophobic nature of the Saviors closing in. Don’t worry about who dies.
- Make their day: Do things to make others happy. This one might
take some work to apply to the show, but maybe a nice comment or tweet. Or refrain from bursting someone’s bubble and being mean on social media. - Choose your attitude: This doesn’t mean change your mind or think positive. It means you have control over how you’re going to behave and how much you let things affect you.
Aunt Susie
This meme was the inspiration for this entire article. I’m Aunt Susie. When we were young and we had to do something that we didn’t want to do, my mom would tell us to offer it up. She meant to do it as a sacrifice for God and it would make us better people and God would be happy.
We didn’t really understand all that, we just heard, “please, do it anyway.” Or, “suck it up,” but we knew it had something to do with heaven or God and being nice.
I guess that has rubbed off on me. Last summer my 8-year old nephew came to visit me and we went to the pool. He dipped his toe in and told me the water was cold. He announced, “But as my Aunt Susie always, ‘Suck it up'”
I hope you enjoyed my journey through business motivation for The Walking Dead 101. If your blood pressure is still boiling, perhaps you need the advanced class. There’s always my favorite stuff: yoga and Buddhist philosophy! A child’s pose, a little Deepak Chopra or Dalai Lama and you’ll be good to go.