At Flō, we talk a lot about having the right mindset. This helps us in every facet of our lives. Having the right mindset can help us grow personally and professionally, and face opportunities and challenges head-on. All of us experience metaphoric storms in life. The question is, how do we respond to those storms? What’s our mindset?
In January 2024, our company celebrated 25 years in business and hosted A Better Way™ team event in Miami. Our keynote speaker, Matt Davis, educated us on one of the most fascinating characteristics of buffalos – how they react when a storm is coming, versus how cows, their close relatives, have a radically different response.
They both sense the storm … they feel it … they see it. When it arrives, buffalos instinctively face it head-on and run at the storm. By doing so, they can run straight through it and conquer it fast. This reduces the amount of time, frustration and exposure they have in the storm itself, and as they break out into the sunshine once they are though it, it gives them access to the best vegetation. Cows, on the other hand, seek the safety of familiar pastures, avoiding storms at all costs. Faced with a storm, they turn heel and run in the opposite direction. Eventually, the storm catches up with them, but they will continue to run parallel to it, too tired to turn and face it. As a result, they spend more time in the misery of the storm, suffering the rain, wind and cold much longer than necessary.
Our storms are the mental, physical and emotional battles we face every day. Are you more like a cow who is fearful of the storm approaching, or are you more like a buffalo who knows a storm is coming and faces it head-on? Cows run away — which ultimately means they spend more time in the worst of it. Buffalo, on the other hand, charge directly into the storm. By running straight through it, they minimize the time they spend in it and the pain they suffer.
Don’t try to run from your storms. Don’t try to avoid them. Face adversity head-on, embracing discomfort as an opportunity for growth. Embrace challenges as chances to thrive and evolve, for it’s often amidst the storm that we discover our true strength and resilience.
Throughout life we are either anticipating the coming storm, we are in the middle of the storm, or we are experiencing life after the storm. We don’t get to choose whether we have storms – we only get to choose how we are going to respond. #buffaflō #belikethebuffalo #mindset