The imperative For Today For Tomorrow

This is normal. Yesterday we didn’t think it was that normal, we just knew the cycles and the expectations. Transformation was the word for accepted adaptation. What was Before Pandemic (BP) was back there, not be the same again. 

This is the time of Do Leadership. This is the time to leave behind the old models that no longer serve.  This is the time for courage, creativity, compassion and community. To turn losses into possibilities. To move from what’s expected to what’s needed. To create answers, stop looking for them.

Do Leadership is what's required to stay poised, vulnerable, patient, attentive in crisis.  It’s comfort in ambiguity, knowing that hardship encourages a path to resolve, to redirect businesses, to support our talent and communities and of course continue to support those that have been fearless on the front lines. 

Start here. Start with yourself. Start now.  Before you can take constructive action, you need to look inward to bring yourself to a state of calm and inner balance, to connect strongly with who you are and what you want to fight for.

Here are simple actions to take, easily incorporated into your day and/or night routines, to get your grounding back, be even stronger, be a better friend, boss, partner, sister, daughter ---- you get it.  

  • Do less: enough with webinars and classes. They’re often distractions because you can’t focus, and need to feed the beast. It takes an average of 23 minutes to return from a distraction.  Keep a count for a day and you’d be amazed how much time you waste.

Plus, our brains can’t handle all the activities. We’re wired for survival, connection and pleasure, not multitasking. We lose up to 40% of productivity when we fill our schedules with busyness.  

The question to ask yourself is why do you do it?  I’ll leave it there for now.

  • Do more for someone else: reach out and touch someone. Who on your team is by themselves?  Check on your neighbor.  Write to someone who haven’t seen in ages… if there’s a silver lining in COVID, use it as an excuse for note calling sooner.

While it seems as if we’re closing in on the end of our Staying at Home requirement, we’re not. Earlier in the year studies indicated the country was fighting a Loneliness Epidemic as 60% of Americans said they were lonely. Layer on COVID, the more we are socially distanced, the more we need social connection. 

  • Do for you: If you put always yourself last, you’ll be emotionally depleted in no time and that’s not an option.  Meditate, go to bed at a reasonable time, the same time every day: 4 hours to lock in the day, 4 hours to get ready for the next day; lower risk of weight gain, regulates immune function, learning and memory.

We’re adhering to the do less, be better message, so stopping here.  We’ll have more valuable tips in our next segment.

The more we are socially distanced, the more we need social connection.

- Time, Inc