This Week: May 22nd
Read
I read this article in the early stages of quarantine. We were in the honeymoon phase of social distancing and everybody was picking up new hobbies and setting lofty goals to achieve before they emerge back in to civilization: workout every day, read more, learn new recipes, knit, deep clean the house, etc. Don’t get me wrong, these are all great things to do and strive for but this article made me look at it from another angle.
What I took away:
It’s important to understand where you are and what you can/should take on. If quarantine has you home schooling your children, working from home for the first time, having your spouse as a “coworker”, cooking more meals at home, learning how to use Zoom…this probably isn’t the time to take on new challenges and hobbies. Like he says in the article, survive and arrive!
As much as I appreciate and agree with this perspective I had a voice in my head saying “No, you can do more”. To be fair; I don’t have kids, I work from home, and my wife is a great “coworker”, so this quarantine hasn’t been a huge shift for me day to day. I don’t want to use this pandemic as an excuse to not push myself and continue to grow. If you are in a position where you can focus more time on a passion or new hobby, go for it.
Comparison. Ugh, this is always hard. When you hear friends or people on social media talk about all this new stuff they are doing, it can make you feel like you aren’t accomplishing anything. If this is you, it’s ok. Again, this time isn’t about being the most productive version of yourself. Know where you are and go from there, whatever that means for you.
Let’s all be a bit more patient with people traveling with children!
Watched
This episode of Some Good News is a few weeks old, but it’s so good. If you haven’t seen or heard of Some Good News, it’s a weekly YouTube news show presented by John Krasinski (aka Jim Halpert for you Office fans) highlighting stories to make you smile from across the world. This episode celebrates recent graduates.
What I took away:
“Stop completing things and start living them” - Jon Stewart. It’s easy to get in the pattern of checking things off your list as you go through life. This is a great reminder to be an active participant in your life, and not just turn on autopilot. We are meant to explore, be challenged, and try new things.
Oprah’s analogy of taking off in an airplane when it’s dark and dreary on the ground, then as soon as you break through the clouds, you see the sun. This is a great reminder that while sometimes it can seem like that darkness is never ending, the sun is always there.
“It will be imagination and innovation that gets us all to the other side” - Steven Spielberg.
Listened (to a video)
Ok, this one is a video but the audio is the important part…I first listened to it while I was working on something else so I’m counting it as audio. This is a recording from Simon Sinek of a meeting he had with his team in late March. If you are not familiar with Simon Sinek, he is an author and speaker best known for his TED Talk, now published book, Start With Why. If you have not heard that talk, check it out here. This team meeting is inspiring and empowering.
What I took away:
Develop an infinite mindset. When you are living/working with an infinite mindset you realize there will be times you are “ahead” and times you will be “behind”, but the goal is to keep going. If you fail, it’s ok, keep going.
These are not unprecedented times in the business world. The circumstance around COVID-19 are certainly different, but the idea of disruption and reinvention is not new. We have always come out the other side and this time will be no different.
We are living in a time of a lot of uncertainty, no doubt, but the opportunity we have to reinvent ourselves during a time of uncertainty is empowering. I take the phrase “reinvent yourself” with a grain of salt as I think back to the article I started this post with. Know what you can handle right now and make decisions based on what’s best for you.