The challenge: Control a pandemic.
The solution: Don’t try.
World leaders can’t control what is going on around us at the moment, they have the brightest minds at their disposal, they have unlimited (well it seems that way) cash reserves, lots of classified technology that we probably don’t even know about yet and they still can’t do it.
So I urge you to not waste your time and energy trying. What we can do is to try and control how we think about the pandemic and our current situation. But hope is not lost, I promise you, we just need to change tact.
The new challenge: Find balance.
With so much change recently, some of us have found our world’s turned upside down and some of us have found that we’ve got a better balance since our lives have changed around. For those of you that have found a good balance, I salute you but I imagine, if you’ve got a good balance, you’re probably not reading this article about finding balance!
So for us other folk that want to find balance, to start our quest, we need to know what we are searching for.
What does our ideal balance actually look like? Is it shiny, is it peaceful? We’ve been taught that our balance is split between work and life. But at a time where many of us are living and working in the place where we both work and live, this is a challenging balance to find, where are the boundaries? This also implies that one of these is good and one is bad, so work is bad, life is good. But I’m one of those people that likes my work so why should I work less for me to find balance if it’s something that brings me joy and purpose?
I invite you to think about your ideal balance in a different way.
Try finding the balance between things you enjoy being and doing. What activities give you a sense of being and when do you feel like you are doing? What recharges your energy and what uses your energy. Where does your energy flow from and to?
As I said, I love my work but there are bits about my work that are draining. I’m an introvert and so as someone that delivers lots of workshops and speaks at events regularly, it’s really important to me that I can feel balanced afterwards. As this kind of work drains me, I know that I need to balance my day by then spending time being on my own straight afterwards. Sometimes that is simply working on my laptop (no Zoom calls!) and other times it might be taking a walk or listening to some music whilst playing on my phone.
But it goes beyond introvert and extrovert. I can have a great day doing back to back Zoom calls but feel the need to see friends in the evening. For me, it’s not as simple as time on my own balanced with time with others.
It’s deeper than that, it’s how much energy I need, where I get the energy and when I need the energy.
It’s not about a good and bad list, it doesn’t matter what part of your life activities fit into, it’s about understanding yourself.
What’s important to you?
Recharging helps us feel more in control. When we are tired, overwhelmed, drained, we don’t feel in control.
Balance gives us control.
But to find that balance we need to reflect and we need to aspire. We need to ask ourselves what we want and to know what we want is the first step to feeling in control.
So you can’t control a pandemic, but you can control what you think.
