Perceiving Your Work-Life In A Time of Crisis: Diving In or Tuning Out
In this difficult time, first and foremost we focus on our family, on our health, and getting through this crisis together. But the hours and days go in waves. Panic gives way to peace and back again. And if you’re a business owner or operator, in-between taking care of yourself and your family, you’ve certainly been thinking about your responsibilities to your job.
This is an unprecedented time to reconsider, re-evaluate and re-think the relationship you have with your business. If you’ve taken care of the fundamental physiological and safety needs to get you through the Covid-19 crisis, you now have a choice of what to do with your time.
Do you continue business as usual or take this chance to do something different with your life?
Some people don’t have that choice right now. People in government, medicine, first responders, food delivery, we need these people now more than ever. But business owners and entrepreneurs, small businesses operators and the self-employed have a choice. Do you dive in? Or do you tune out?
If your business is not “essential” to society’s survival at this exact moment, what do you do with your time?
I’m in the event industry. My business is speaking to groups of people. My livelihood depends on people coming together. So my business has been put on hold, all events and conferences rescheduled for the next three months. As I evaluate my business, I see the following choices:
Wait for this to pass and things to return to normal: continue working on my book, my presentations, feeling confident that once we have herd immunity, everything will be scheduled as normal and I will be back to speaking in front of live audiences.
Plan and prepare for fundamental change: re-evalute my product offerings, focus on developing my virtual training programs, feeling confident that this is the new future, seeing the opportunity to impact more people than I ever have through video conferencing.
Take time to reflect and focus on family: stop the daily work, grind, hustle. Pause the inbox, calls, emails, slacks, proposals. Take this time to be fully present and work on my home projects, on reading, learning, petting the cat, playing with my 1-year old daughter, and relaxing with my wife.
Certainly I have other choices and ways of merging the three, but as it stands, my mind keeps going over these three opportunities. I’ve been discussing them with many friends via FaceTime, on my daily walks. And I’m seeing how everyone is facing similar choices and everyone is making different decisions.
If you take a look at the picture accompanying this post, I think you’ll know which choice I’ve been making the last two weeks.
I’m sharing these thoughts because so many friends and fellow business owners I’ve spoken to are thinking the same things. And while I know that not everyone is in a position to even have this choice, for those of us that do, it’s important that we know we are not alone in this.
So which one feels right to you?
Do you work harder than ever, preparing for change?
Or do you take a break from the hustle and re-evaluate what’s important to you?
Do you dive in? Or tune out?
To help evaluate which choice is right for you, consider where you are in your life-cycle. Consider how your place in life compares to the life-cycle of your business. If they match, wonderful. If they don’t, take an extra moment to think. If you’re twenty years old and you just launched a start-up, then go forth and hustle. If you’re 64 and eyeing retirement, maybe this is the time to take it easy on yourself.
Keep in mind is that there is no absolute choice. There are levels and degrees. And if you want, you could certainly find a happy merging of them.
Personally, I’m taking this time to reflect and tune-out, because I have no doubt that the time to focus and dive in will return. We’ve never had an opportunity like this (and hopefully won’t again anytime soon) to reflect on our purpose, on our work, on our relationships.
So before you make your decision, just take a moment to breathe. Consider what is important to you in this stage of your life. There is no right or wrong answer. There is simply the choice that you will make. Be kind to yourself. And as the author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, reminds us: Don’t Panic.
Love to you and your family in these difficult times.
Kostya
