This is not a post about Donald Trump. This is a post about dusting off, getting up and moving on. This is a post about Resilience with a capital 'R'. It’s about the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is a post about hope & opportunity, and making change happen.

Like millions and millions of people around the globe on Wednesday, I woke up with a sense of dread. The world was much darker, not only because Trump will be president, but because he was elected on divisive principles of hate and fear. It says a lot about our current society, but do you know what? I moved on very quickly. I moved on because I am restless and have things to do about it. Writing this post is one of them.

Now you might say that I’m ambivalent because it happened all the way over the Atlantic; it’s too distant to affect me. The impact of the decision has implications way beyond the US and it will most certainly affect the entire globe, but that’s not the reason.

It’s because I’ve already been here very recently. To my friends and I, 23rd June was a dark Friday. I simply couldn’t believe that on the referendum vote the previous day, 52% of the British voting public had elected for the UK to leave the European Union.

I was numb with shock and I was in denial. I furiously scanned the internet for glimmers of hope, ravaged through articles and signed many petitions to demand recounts or a new referendum. I was hugely saddened by the future effect of this dumb decision on my ability to travel or do business freely with my European cousins, or the prospect of my three young children not being able to do so in years to come. I was panicking about the economy and extremely worried about hate crimes. It was bad and I was so angry with the idiots, the liars and the self-interested parties that I saw nothing else but red mist for several weeks.

After the anger subsided, I realised something though. It is what it is. There’s nothing I can do about what happened, but I can influence the future. Time to move on, and use my superpowers for good. It was the kick up the backside my business partners and me needed to finally launch our new venture, Mavericks Unlimited.

We decided that if wanted to see change, we needed to take control and make it happen ourselves. We’d do what we can, however big or small, to make the broadest impact possible. It just so happens that we have set some huge goals for Mavericks Unlimited and our aim is to build a global tribe of 100,000+ gamechangers who work together to make life better and create a world that works for all. We provide inspiration & motivation to get people unstuck and into action. This is how we choose to make a difference.

It struck me this week that our collective psyche during the aftermath of Brexit (certainly the remain camp) elicited the behaviours of the change curve below:

Friends around the world – you’ll be going through the same feelings yourselves right now. I’ve already seen social media awash with the similar sort of cycle we went through – Shock, Denial, Frustration etc.…and you know something, its ok and its necessary to go through the change curve.

You are hurting and you’re reeling, but you do need to get up. I recently saw a great video about ‘Resilience’. It told of when James ‘Buster’ Douglas beat Mike Tyson and caused one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. His mother had sadly died just weeks before, but he still got in the ring and after getting knocked down, he got back up to beat Tyson and become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Before she passed, Douglas’ mother told him that she knew he was going to beat Tyson, and so he did it for her. His reason for getting up again was so powerful that it drove him to do the seemingly impossible. He was hurting, he was broken, he was the underdog, but he had a Purpose for doing it and it powered him through.

I know it’s early and it’s raw, but try your best to accelerate through the early parts of the change curve towards experimentation. Get through it in the best way that you can – inform yourself, energise yourself and surround yourself with people you love and care about. They will be your inspiration for getting through it.

Then: DO SOMETHING.

Big or small, do anything you can. But you must do something.

Social Media channels are comforting because you are mostly surrounded by people who are feeling the same way you are. But that’s part of the problem, it only serves the echo chamber. You need to get out beyond the people who agree with you, and get into the world. Channel your negative energy into a positive force for good.

I won’t make suggestions for what to do because there will be unique callings for each of you. If you have an idea, but are feeling stuck or don’t know how to get started, you might draw some inspiration from our blog posts on Mavericks Unlimited.

And if a little voice inside your head tells you that nothing you do will make a difference right now, turn its volume down. Everything you do can and will make a difference, especially when you compound the effect of all the other Mavericks and gamechangers doing their things out there too.

You just need to take the first step forward*.

* A great first step forward might be to sign up to the tribe and help us to create a world that works!

Oh Sh*t…What’s Next?