JUMPING IN THE RIVER DOESN’T MAKE YOU DROWN IT'S STAYING SUBMERGED THAT DOES THE DROWNING.
A good friend of mine who lives in London, told me yesterday that for the first time in his lifetime, the air in the city is clean, fresh and he can now smell flowers – an unheard of phenomenon.
And one of my clients, a savvy and wealthy businessman who usually spends his days worrying about the financial markets tells me he’s thinking of throwing in the towel. The pandemic has changed the rhythm of his life and he loves being at home.
Stopping to smell the flowers and finding a better rhythm to your life needs self-awareness and some inner discipline. Prior to the pandemic, many people that I know uttered the mantra, ‘I need to slow down and get a better work life balance’, but they didn’t.
Consequently, many individuals and families were drowning in a sea of inaction, which negatively impacted emotional wellbeing, relationships, mental health, and peace of mind.
The challenge is converting the knowledge of needing to slow down into actions that encourage an improved rhythm to life. Deadlines, travel, meetings, financial commitments, and work pressure will remain. However, post pandemic, your historical perceptions, beliefs, and fears about them need not.
During this enforced hiatus, there is time to draw breath and recalibrate the lives we lead. We have an opportunity to bring perspective to work problems, relationship issues, and what we believe we can and cannot do.
We have the innate ability to focus on the things we do have and not fret about those we do not. We can champion the idea that we can control many things in our life and for those factors outside our control; we must give them up to the Universe. We can also embrace the notion that work does not fashion our identity or elevate our status – we own the privilege of building our character.
You are unique. Not another soul on the planet is like you and your interactions with those you care for cannot be replicated by another. This means, you have to look after yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally.
During this turbulent and tragic time, I believe we have been gifted an unparalleled opportunity to reset our compass and be grateful for those things which really matter.
To reset our compass, we need only do three things.
1. Confirm what matters most to you and why
2. Work out what you will change when life gets back to normal
3. Be steadfast and don’t get dragged back into historical behaviours
For this blog, I’ll leave the final words to William Ernest Henley.
“I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul…”
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KEEP SAFE!
