By Mark Kaplan / April 13, 2020
The virus has brought just about every facet of life in society to its knees. The wealthy might not have to worry about cash flow, but they don’t have much freedom to spend their cash dining out, traveling, or visiting their expensive offices.
The balance of the population is in lock down and worries about income, their future, and their sanity. In the past, we had dreams and those dreams may have changed in the last 90 days. We are probably becoming more grounded in what is important to us.
Have Our Values Changed?
Even though most of us may not have had fear of contracting the virus and dying, the stakes have been high. They are likely to remain high for the next few years. Afterward, there will most likely be outbreaks, but hopefully everyone will be vaccinated.
Our freedoms have been cut short and we never thought we lived in a police state, but we do find ourselves relegated to going outside for just exercise or crucial shopping. You have never had less freedom.
What will be important in the future? This should be a 5 alarm bell to get our health in order to avoid the underlying conditions for which this virus kills. We need to be healthy and fit from youth through old age.
Savings and luxury goods may take on new significance. People may start to wonder what is enough cash for a rainy day. The majority of people will consider whether luxury goods are important. Or they may think, you only live once and now is the time to enjoy themselves.
What careers are safe in the future and which will be threatened? There may be a reordering of priorities as the digital and high-tech worlds become more significant in our lives. Maybe restaurants will be super kitchens with delivery service.
Can You Make Plans?
Very few seem to have influence on our near-term future other than governors, mayors and scientists. They will tell us when we can roam. In the meantime, you are at home with yourself and your loved ones.
What can you do with this time? We certainly want to maintain our morale. We want to maintain and improve our health. We have all taken stock of our finances and know what might be necessary to survive for a few years.
It might be a good time to test our comfort zones. Right now we have lots of fears, but in the future we might face new challenges. We might be called upon to learn new skills. We may have to communicate differently. We might have to learn how to entertain ourselves.
On the one hand, I am out exercising every day and trying to get sunshine. I have taken up baking. I don’t like following recipes, but if you have a little perfectionist in you, making great desserts is fun. I am back to reading classics. I continue to push my research, writing, and podcasting. I try to find things that are difficult to challenge my brain and will power.
If one skill might be valuable in the future it could be resilience. When life serves you lemons make lemonade. We may all be engaged in this effort to make the best of things because for most of us, we didn’t see this curve in the road. Expect things to be different. Expect things to be a challenge. Expect to rely on your resilience and will power.
Be willing to adjust your new thoughts of happiness to more grounded values of growth, health, friendship, and contribution.
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