4 Ways to Prepare for the Next Phase of the Pandemic (Plus a Bonus Exercise)
I was super excited about my trip to Rhode Island in May. I was going to be one of the speakers for the Women in Leadership Nexus on May 1st. Then, my dear friend and I were going to spend a weekend in Boston and shoot over for a few days of hiking in Acadia. I’ve never been to Acadia. I’ve been DREAMING about this hike for the last three years. Then…”Hi Corona!”
I can assure you that during the flurry of Strategic Planning sessions I was involved in facilitating November through January, not one of our clients identified “Navigating a Pandemic” as a goal for 2020. I seriously doubt it made it to anyone’s vision boards. Yet here we are—all of us—our plans sidelined in some way or another. Many of us dealing with much worse than a cancelled trip.
And now, regardless of whether we are ready, we are all marching into a new phase of this pandemic and it’s time to start preparing. But before we jump into hacking away at our current strategic plan, vision board, or hastily throwing together next steps, let’s get focused. Here are four things you can do before you start planning for what’s next (along with a little bonus exercise).
Get Calm. Acknowledge where you, your family, your team are at emotionally, financially, situationally and accept this as fact, without judgment. You will be more effective in your planning if you are acting from a place of calm and acceptance rather than resistance or anger. It might be helpful to also remember that you are not defined by your circumstances.
Get Compassionate. Throw in some compassion for yourself (and others) for good measure. We are all having “big feelings” right now. We are all navigating confusion, frustration, fear, stress, maybe even guilt. While well meaning, our inner critics tend to use harmful tactics to get us to change behavior or keep us safe. Let those critics know they can step back and take a rest. You are the adult here and you’ve got this. Speaking of your ability to handle this…
Tap into your resilience. Look back through your life for other times when you weathered adversity. You might even want to make a list. This is not the first challenging time you have survived and it very likely won’t be your last. Remember your grit. Remember your power. It’s in there.
Get curious. We want to be thinking differently right now, drawing on creativity, innovation, and ingenuity. Creativity does not grow when watered with fear. Fear is meant to get us focused and works great when we are running away from danger. But in situations like pandemics, fear acts like blinders on a horse – preventing us from being able to see fully or think creatively. Creativity, however, thrives when watered with curiosity! To get your head into a space of creativity, start by getting genuinely curious about what’s happening and what comes next. Sit with that for a while.
Bonus: Start, Stop, Continue. Once you’ve gotten calm, granted yourself some compassion, remembered how freaking capable you truly are and gotten really curious about all that is happening right now, you might find it’s a good time to do a personal Start/Stop/Continue exercise. You can frame the questions however you’d like, but I might approach it like this:
As we enter this next phase and I look out over the next several months…
What behaviors, actions, patterns do I want to start? Which do I want to stop? What have I been doing that I want to continue? Then write out tactically, objectively, and explicitly what you need to do to make these changes a reality.
As we enter this next phase, I hope you will take the time to remember and to touch into your inner calm, creativity, compassion, curiosity, and resilience. Getting yourself in the right head space, accepting things as they are right now and evaluating your current state will set you up to lead yourself and others through this very interesting time from a place of clarity and confidence. I believe if you look deep enough, you will see that you’ve got this.