What a time to live in! Most of us receiving this email are in lockdown due to the Covid-19 virus. For many it is a fearful and stressful time, especially if you or some of your loved ones have been infected, your business is non-operational or struggling, your income has stopped or dropped, and your future is uncertain. Others try to see this as a time of possibility and opportunity – to serve and help others, to grow and adapt to new ways of communication and work, to reinvent yourself and develop new services or products, to strengthen relationships and build trust.
As business consultants, my colleagues and I (at Camino Consulting) had a very decisive choice to make: (1) Are we merely going to try to survive through this time, or (2) Are we intentionally going to serve and help our clients in all the best possible ways. We chose the latter. I am connecting with clients, not to solve all their problems for them (which a part of me wish I can do). No, I am rather trying to work with them so that they can manage themselves well, keep perspective, empower themselves to use the best thinking and leadership tools, make the best choices and decisions, and to be a collaborative, positive and inspiring influence on the people they connect with.
Friends, this is not a time for mere self-preservation, to self-centredly do your own thing or critisise others. But let’s rather take hands, join forces, generously give what we can, and overcome our challenges collectively and collaboratively.
As Dr. Victor Frankl, who as a Jewish psychiatrist overcame the horrific challenges of a concentration camp in the second world war, taught us: we can seldom control everything that happens to us, but we can always choose our attitude and how we react. That’s your power of choice. So, how you get through this time, will to a very large extent depend on how you exercise that choice – day by day. My appeal to you is the following: Please have an honest check-in with yourself; make the necessary adjustments; and choose to be a positive blessing to yourself and others.
Three crucial strategies are also important: Perspective, Security, and Values:
- Perspective and focus: Let’s define our realities factually, not fearfully. Then, stay the course and do what we responsibly can and should do.
- Security and Trust: No one can get through this alone. Let’s define in what and whom we want to trust. And then align our actions accordingly. And be trustworthy ourselves.
- Values: Let’s define what we treasure and value. If money and posessions are our only treasures, we might find ourselves much poorer quite soon. But if our treasures are really deeper – like relationships, contribution, calling, legacy and our purpose – we might be much richer after we have conquered Covid-19. Then we will enjoy the life we have with what we have much more and much deeper. And we will have great stories to tell.
Remember, this too shall pass. Let’s grow and adapt through all of this and get to the other side – ready and positive to face a world that will be much different than the one we were used to. Surely, it will have a lot of new and very tough challenges. And it will be a world where we will most probably think, do, communicate, learn, relate and work quite differently. But there will also be lots of new opportunities and still a good life to live – that’s if you proactively choose to do so. Let’s choose life…
