This month, rather than the traditional gratitude posts, we’re thinking specifically about the Covid-19 pandemic. While there are seemingly unending negatives to this pandemic, there are also silver linings to be found if you look for them.
For the final blog in this series, the theme is insights. The pace of life and travel pre-Covid didn’t always allow me the headspace to see what was right in front of me. Not as clearly as this pandemic has.
Some insights are painful, some are joyful, and some just eye-opening. All insights present you with a moment to decide. How will you incorporate this? How will you learn from this? How will you grow from this? Will you ignore this?
I’ve been astonished at how political the pandemic has become. I think it’s a uniquely American trait to be so incredibly self-involved that we think everything is about us, only affects us, and will somehow lead to our downfall if we don’t push back. My European and Canadian clients and friends have sent so many wonderful notes to me during these past 1,134 months of 2020. They’ve expressed concern, support, and reassurance that everything will somehow work out. At times it has been embarrassing to try and explain what’s happening here. But most of the time, I’ve just embraced the messages of acceptance and support.
I wish I could say the same kinds of messages have come from everyone we know in our everyday lives. They have not. Lines have been drawn. Where once we could agree to disagree, we can apparently no longer have different opinions without being attacked for them. While this has been a painful experience, I’d rather know where I really stand with someone every time.
Insights have been one of the most meaningful silver linings of Covid for me. Whether they were about relationships, about our business focus, about the value of just being still more often, or something else, this pandemic has forced me to slow way down and pay attention.
What about you? What insights have you gained during this time? Which ones hurt the most? Which ones helped the most? Are those two lists mutually exclusive? Mine aren’t. But we keep on keeping on. Because we have to keep going. With my new insights into how the business needs to evolve, how my relationships need to evolve, and how much better I need get at taking care of myself, I feel like I CAN keep going. And I hope you can, too.
