Building resilience, our ability to adapt to change and to be flexible when faced with uncertain situations and unsettling environments can regrettably not be learnt and perfected during times of certainty and predictability. We have to learn these skills the hard way.
Over the past year and a half, being a business owner in this COVID world has been both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Never quite sure as to when the next shock wave was coming. I am however grateful to have learnt a number of lessons along the way, albeit the hard way sometimes.
Lesson # 1 – keep moving forward
At the best of times we face rejection, loss and frustration in our day to day business operations. That is just business – nothing personal, just the price of business. However, add a global pandemic into the mix and if we let it, the situation can feel completely hopeless.
What I have learnt is that no matter how bad things feel or get – never give up! Keep moving forward. It doesn’t matter how slowly you move, but just keep moving forward. To be honest, some days it can feel like you are walking barefoot through broken glass, but the satisfaction at the end of day is worth it.
Keeping motivated can be tackled in a few ways. Firstly, read the next lesson and secondly ensure that you have a strong support network around you. These people are not there to share in your pity party, they are there to keep you focused and motivated. Therefore, chose your support team wisely.
Lesson # 2 – realistic expectations
Good business practise is setting goals to achieve our business vision. However, due to these unpredictable times we must accept that the goals set before the pandemic are not necessarily realistic or achievable now in this current environment. It can be like trying to push a round peg into a square hole – frustrating, annoying, impractical and at the end of the day a complete waste of time. Believing you can work independently from this changing environment is foolish and only sets you up for failure.
The quicker we acknowledge this, the quicker we can move on. Re-defining the goals and building realistic action plans to achieve them. I recall the term “pivot” was the word de jour at the beginning of this pandemic and that is exactly what you need to do with your expectations, change them from round to square pegs.
Instead of trying to achieve big hairy audacious goals – think of smaller, micro goals that you can achieve everyday. This helps to maintain the momentum, irrespective of how slow you are in moving forward.
Lesson # 3 – acceptance
Getting angry and upset is normal. We are all, in some shape or form experiencing the various stages of the grief cycle. We’ve had our worlds turned upside down, we’ve had our movements restricted and been denied pleasures we have always taken for granted. Absolutely we have the right to be upset.
However, at some stage we need to accept this situation and move on. Being stuck in the denial, anger, blaming and negotiation phases is only achieving one thing – negatively affecting our mental health and wellbeing.
Accept that we cannot change and control everything and start focusing on what we can control.
Lesson # 4 – choose your environment
Choosing my environment has been a real saving grace for me over this period. It is so interesting to see how people react and behave during times of stress and pressure. People tend to expose their true colours and accidental values during these times.
In order to keep focused, positive and moving forward I have had to be incredibly diligent about who or what I let into my environment. This is a place where I have control and the big lesson for me was to invoke my control at every turn.
I chose to not let negative energy come into my space. I chose to not engage in pointless debates with people who didn’t care for my opinion. I chose to not listen to the ugliness, blaming and nastiness which has somehow invaded our news and social media platforms. I chose to be positive. This choice brings tremendous freedom.
Lesson #5 – mental health and wellbeing matters
I can honestly admit that prior to COVID I had no real idea how important our mental health and wellbeing actual is. I knew it was essential, but when you are going through this daily unrelenting stress test, as you are well aware – your mental health is challenged significantly. As mentioned earlier, we can only recognise this or learn this when we are in a stressful situation.
I took my mental health for granted. Never again. Lesson for me – never place my health – physical or mental in second place. Without a strong, confident and positive mindset we can so easily slip down a dark rabbit hole of despair. Being healthy, body and mind helps us to support our personal and business world. It is an essential building block in our foundation of success.
These are my lessons, I am sure you have your own – feel free to take them, learn from them and apply them.
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