In the midst of a national Pandemic, being locked in at home with your family, bouncing between Zoom calls, your mind kind of wonders. You think about your life, what you do for a living, what you feel is most important, and what you would be doing if you weren’t at home. You also think about what could happen if you are stuck at home forever. I know, frightening for some. A forced slow down of the world, equated to a brief moment of clarity which was extremely uncomfortable for most of us. For me, moving at light speed, with my brain moving even faster, chasing imaginary squirrels, the anxiety was overwhelming at first.
Then, I took a deep long breath. I relaxed and I watched my son bounce up and down in his bouncer. The innocence of a child is exponentially larger in a Pandemic. At a little under one year old, he was as happy as a Clam. To him, there was no Covid-19, no worry, no fear and he was happy. He was passionate about bouncing, he had his mom and dad, and he knew food was going to be provided as Kim, my wife, prepared his next meal in the background.
It is in this slow down that I had an epiphany…..and I asked myself three questions:
- What is most important to me in my life?
- Why is this important?
- How do I spend more time doing what is important to me? (no one else)
How simple a series of questions, yet challenging beyond belief. It was hard but everything becomes crystal clear as you define your answers. Ultimately we have to ask ourselves these questions both personally and professionally. Realistically most of us wear two if not more hats on a daily basis. I found myself working methodically through each question.
Then, almost by default, you naturally end up asking three more questions to round out the equation:
- Where am I going in life and is it in line with the answers to my first 3 questions?
- Who am I spending time with that will help me go where I want to go?
- When am I going to change my trajectory if all these answers are not aligned?
Quicky, I realized that some changes needed to be made. For me, my purpose, my passion, and also to fall in line with my trajectory. Those changes maybe aren’t important to anyone other than me, however, perhaps they impact those around me that I care about. Relatively speaking, the changes you need to make are your prerogative whether they are personal or professional. My challenge to you is in asking yourself that big question, why? Why are you doing what you are doing, and if you aren’t happy, why the hell aren’t you making a change? Honestly, there is no time like the pandemic.
Justin D. Leader