Covid-19 has brought a great deal of individual and family suffering and loss with the national and global response resulting in a dramatic impact on our economy. For many there is a perceived sense of loss that our normal way of life has changed irrevocably.

How should we deal with this unique situation? Most importantly we shouldn’t resist the changes that are happening. We should accept them (we don’t need to like or agree with them) if we are to effectively deal with the change. Everyone responds to change differently,and the lifecycle of change makes demands on us at different times and in different ways. Our own individual change lifecycle is influenced by our personal circumstances and mindset. We can look to others for inspiration, but this may not be an effective or appropriate template to enable us to move forward.

Every day, we are inundated and overwhelmed by information and opinions on what we should or shouldn’t be doing and what or how we should be feeling at this time. Rather than be swayed or disrupted by the latest pundit or “expert” we should seek to self-observe and understand ourselves and our subsequent reactions and responses to this crisis to facilitate greater clarity in navigating our way through this. It’s really OK not to be OK sometimes- it’s just part of the process of navigating our way through. The process starts with self-awareness. Being aware of how we are feeling and thinking at any given time, acknowledging those feelings and thoughts and taking the necessary steps to manage the situation will make us more resilient and balanced (this is how we use our intrinsic emotional intelligence).

Many of us have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions over the past few months. With so much rapid change going on we have had to adapt both swiftly and decisively. This is particularly challenging for those who feel uncomfortable or threatened by change. For many of us, change is overwhelming.

As I see it, we have been managing (and continue to manage) three distinct stages of change:

1. LOCKDOWN

Immediately after lockdown the primary biological driver was instinctive, focused purely on how we could keep ourselves, our loved ones and colleagues safe and well.

2. CONTINUING TO OPERATE REMOTELY

Here our focus is continued survival and well-being by operating in a newly restricted business environment to limit any immediate damage to our business and financial security.

3. EXITING FROM LOCKDOWN

How are we going to carefully manage our transition from lockdown and what will the new normal look like?

To set ourselves up for success in adapting and adjusting to these changes we must start by being mindful of our thinking and the platform we are operating from. Have we made the shift from surviving to thriving? Have we moved from victim to being a protagonist for the future, as Tony Robins suggests?(https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/how-businesses-are-pivoting-now/) How are we priming ourselves to move on, to adapt and thrive in the new environment? Are we pivoting to align ourselves with the changing circumstances? Are we looking for opportunities to accelerate transformation?

To handle these changes and adjustments it is important that we tune into our own frequency and understand how and why we are feeling the way we are. Otherwise we give up our power and control and allow ourselves to be disrupted or disturbed by the negativity and struggles of others.

When we tune into how we are feeling and thinking we give ourselves the opportunity to recognise if we are operating from our optimum mindset (our best self). If we are not, we can use our self-awareness to take action and return to a more balanced and empowering mindset.

One very effective action is to focus on the things that you can control (for example, how much exercise you do or how much social media you use) rather than focusing on the things you can’t, such as government decisions, media reporting etc. It is not at all helpful to concern yourself with the things you can neither influence nor control. It is also helpful to celebrate and focus on what you have rather than what you don’t. Both of these actions build resilience and help us find more creative solutions to problems.

So by observing how we are feeling and thinking and where the focus of our attention is, we give ourselves choices. Knowing we have choices for how we respond to a situation, we immediately feel more empowered and more in control. From this place we can start to give ourselves the opportunity to make more rational intelligent decisions and therefore we start to have greater clarity and sense of purpose. We must act purposefully and decisively to move forward. Making choices from a place of balance and understanding, with a focus on what is really important, enables us to respond much more effectively. From this place we accept responsibility for how we feel and act in response to this crisis.

We could take inspiration from Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Traveled (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

The decisions we make and the paths we choose to follow now may not be the normal ones, but they may encourage us to be more creative and force us to accelerate transformation of our businesses. We could still end up with robust, profitable businesses by taking a different path. Have we fully embraced that we may need to start to do things very differently? If the choices we make are rational, intelligent, considered it will make all the difference...

We are stepping into the unknown into a new normal, but a normal and a future we can consciously create and be aligned to. We must be careful not to be swept along with the mantra and the fearful belief that things will never return to normal! This is a great opportunity to create a new normal which has the potential to change what was wrong with old norms, keep what was right with them, but more importantly create a better normal. After all it is a truism that the only constant in life is change- lean into it!

If we resist where we are, what is (i.e. the present situation) then we will experience suffering by feeling out of control and start to create negative thoughts and stories in our head which leads to anxiety.

What if we were to consciously shift our mindset? Rather than operating from a place of resistance, rigidity and judgement we can consciously and decisively move to a place of openness, acceptance and curiosity as to what the new normal could be like. How would that affect our well-being and mindset? We would certainly start to move along the path of our own development, our own evolution and start to pivot to become part of the change that is happening globally. We can be fully part of the movement that is creating the response to the change and be well placed to be successful in the new normal.

With such a shift in our mindset, we will no longer focus on the loss of the old normal, but instead focus on the movement itself and on the future. Who knows, but as an optimist I really expect that eventually this will be a better place. There is an old Zen proverb that says:

Obstacles do not block the path, they are the path

Our resilience and ability to navigate our way through these times in a balanced and harmonious way starts with our own self-reflection and our unique human capability to really start to understand ourselves and our old conditioned reactions to external circumstances. We should strive to find our own inner peace and stability in these times to set ourselves up for success. Responding to this crisis in a calm rational way will enable us to make intelligent, appropriate decisions.

However we are feeling, thinking and acting at the moment is all part of our personal journey, development and evolution. We are all on this journey and we may share the same experiences sometimes and have different experiences at other times. And that’s OK. But remember you have more control over your journey than you may realise. Use your emotional intelligence, put yourself in control, acknowledge where you are on your journey, recognise what you need to help you along the way and take action to enable you to continue in a balanced harmonious way.