As the leaves start to turn and temperatures start to fall, I am reflecting on the last 6 months of being in Covid-19 lockdown and what I know now. Covid has certainly brought ups and downs for the entire world; some businesses and industries are booming and other businesses have had to close their doors, organizations have had to shift how they deliver their products and services while others sank because of the inability to manoeuvre, while other companies have had to let their people go because there just isn’t any foreseeable end to the pandemic.

What has become abundantly clear is the dancing needed around the prospect of resiliency as people try to create some sort of normalcy for themselves and their families. We can all become complacent and set in our ways and we as humans, try to resort back to our comfortable ‘status quo’ as soon as possible to quell the interruption and ensure a safe conclusion. What Covid has highlighted is the depth and degree that resiliency is needed to outlast and out manoeuvre something beyond our control and at times, our comprehension.

So, as we turn another corner in the Covid19 pandemic (with numbers back on the rise) and flowing into a new season, how have you surprised yourself in your resiliency? What lens/perspective have you been able to look at differently? What do you know about yourself now that you didn’t before?

For me, I am able to see now through a wider lens of how I can better serve my clients, teams, and organizations in their time of need. I am able to see now that resiliency is measured in not how fast you get back up but rather, what you learned and how you use that knowledge. There are many hard lessons to be learned during this time and yet, there are also many great gifts and little nuggets of gold, if you only take the time to look at them in a different light.

With so much going on in the world, there is much to learn during a pandemic.

We can and will debrief, unpack, analyze, create policies, and resolve to put better measures in place to be better prepared for future pandemics and emergencies. In the meantime, what are you learning about yourself and your family and what did you realize that you can/not live without? What is this crisis teaching you?

For me, the pandemic has increased my awareness/compassion for people as you never know how people are being impacted and what kind of day they are having. From the little old lady that scolded me for keeping ‘too much distance in the grocery line’ to the person who made a point of crossing the road so we didn’t come within 30 feet of each other. Compassion requires you to think of more than yourself and more than what is presently in front of you. Easy to say, harder to do.

The pandemic also reaffirmed that less is more and that in the grand scheme of things, life is about the people you chose to surround yourself with and the people you chose to spend time with. It also reminded me that a crisis brings out the best in some and the worst in others.

What was it about an abundance of toilet paper (TP) that made people run out and buy bales of it? What was the TP symbolic of? A sense of security? A knowledge of abundance? A feeling of control? Whatever they were looking for, I hope they found it in their bathroom while admiring their TP.

Moving forward – what did you learn about yourself that you want to continue to do? Dinner with the family? More time spent playing board games? Giving yourself permission to laugh more? Learn a new skill that you didn’t know you had?

Moving forward – what did you learn that no longer serves you and you can leave behind? Letting go of the need to have everything perfect? Realizing that some relationships aren’t meant to last forever? Your definition of happiness? Definition of success?

As we struggle to make sense of the pandemic, remember as Winston Churchill noted, “never let a good crisis go to waste”. Even during a world-wide pandemic, there are lessons to be learned. What’s yours?

I have to be honest, I am looking forward to seeing the new Jumanji movie: ‘The Next Level’. I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ as the characters found themselves in unfamiliar territory with their new ‘Superpowers’ and grappling with their new bodies. What I adored is the characters suddenly having to learn how to use their new ‘Superpowers’ and get past how they had previously viewed and defined themselves.

One of the great underlying messages in the movie is about looking and seeing yourself differently and the changes that it can inspire. What would you do if you were suddenly given a new and different way to look at yourself?  What would you want to explore? What would you want to change? How far would you go to challenge your own assumptions?

Even on a good day, change is hard, messy, uncomfortable, and downright challenging and also leads to incredible gains and insight. Choosing to look at yourself in a different light and stretch outside your comfort zone takes courage, compassion, and perseverance. People often choose to stay stuck rather than discovering what their ‘Superpowers’ are. That is too bad as “change begins at the end of your comfort zone” (Roy T. Bennett).

What are your ‘Superpowers’? What do you want to change? Where has playing it safe gotten you? Remember, #change is difficult, so is living with the #statusquo