In New Jersey, COVID restrictions are being lifted and a quick return to ‘normal’ is unfolding.
I spent every day of the Memorial Day weekend meeting with different friends and family we haven’t been able to see in over a year. It was fantastic to be with people and enjoy their company and catch up. It was also a HUGE source of anxiety.
I may be in the minority, but I don’t want the pace of COVID life to end!
No commitments on the weekends, plenty of time to work out, very little time spent in traffic or even in my car, together-time with my children and husband and time to cook, crochet, do jigsaw puzzles and redecorate my office.
I am very aware that I am one of the fortunate people. We did not lose a loved one to COVID and we did not fall into financial ruin. For that, I’m utterly grateful. I’m also compassionately aware that those with small kids at home or who were fully isolated during COVID had a whole other experience than I did.
My gratitude extends to being able to retool my business in such a way that I don’t have to rely on pre-Covid revenue streams if I don’t want to. That freedom and the personal flexibility I described above are the hard-won pivot that I want to keep as life accelerates around me once again.
How about you? Do you want your old life back?
What do you want back?
What do you want to keep from COVID life?
What COVID gave me was time to discern what mattered. It showed me what is clutter and what’s necessary. In business, it illuminated which activities were worthwhile and mine to master versus those that kept me in limbo as I waited for others to choose me so I could do what I love. In my house, I could see what was no longer serving me and had become junk (bye, bye). It also showed me which friendships were deep and which were convenient. It gave me time to lose 32 pounds with focused effort and drop the ‘big lie’ in my own life that held me back, just to name a few changes.
What COVID gave a spotlight to in my role as an observer of patterns among clients was the many ways in which we use activity to distract us from things that truly make a difference to our health, well-being, and productivity. For example, being ‘busy’ is a great way to avoid acting on changing jobs because you’ve stopped growing. Drama at work or in the family keeps you from working on discovering and processing the triggers that make you want to create (or participate) in the drama in the first place!
What time and space allow for is awareness, mindfulness, and purpose. Doing things purposefully. Doing things on purpose vs. reacting to hair triggers.
Modern life makes it hard to be that mindful. We reward stress. We reward heroic overworking. BUT YOU CAN reverse the Pavolvian response we have to those expectations.
Stop. Now. While you can still swim, before the current washes you into the barely navigable rapids, take stock. What do you want to keep from COVID life? Make some new rules. (i.e., only one day/ night of the weekend is scheduled, the other is for spontaneity or nothing) Put some stakes in the ground, even with yourself about exercise, or quiet time, or reading or whatever it is for you.
Really appreciate reading about all your pandemic upsides plus the upgraded expectations about your time. Thanks for this!
I agree with you! This is the lifestyle I dreamt of having from way back in 2001 after 9/11, minus the Covid and the lineups. Leisurely mornings … I think I’ll continue this way!
So many blessings you write about in this article, thank you…post pandemic is certainly a time for reflection.
I agree! There is definitely some normal I want and crave (like recent trip traveling, meeting interesting people, visiting friends). As for day-to-day, no thank you! I prefer the slower, more discerning pace. In our household the “return to the office” conversation with my wife is a hotbed of anxiety. She doesn’t want to go back to 2-3+ hours a day stuck in death-scraping traffic jams to work all day long with no breaks. A better hybrid (more remote than not) is her and my yearning, but who knows what the corporate beast will speak.
I’ve been paring down for the last few years and pandemic pace drove home that I’m on the right track. Now how to “manage” when the world goes crazy again.