With “nothing to do”, you’d think I’d be pumping out writing non stop. Per the usual, things don’t always work out the way we think. With the unknown comes a gnawing. It’s like “normal life anxiety” but just like the precipice of the “what’s next” we’re teetering on, it feels like I should wait and see, as who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. 

I feel like we are all in for a rude awakening. Especially small business owners. With a minimum of two weeks to go in the first 6 weeks of lockdown and a likely extension to that, business as we know it has and will remain changed. I just don’t see how it can’t. 

I also truly believe that those not making pretty drastic plans to change their model will be left behind. I keep hearing business owners talk about “getting back to normal” and I’m at once hopeful, and at the same time incredulous. 

I’ve been blathering about change on this blog for as long as I’ve been writing it. Mostly about trying to improve my  perceived faults and shortcomings. I mean I’m never gone and gotten a finance degree or been able to use a calendar and plan well, but I’ve talked about it. Which is something I guess?  For as long as I’ve been thinking about it, my self improvement goals have been focused on improving my weaknesses. Maybe that was time ill spent?

Last week I swam 8.5 miles just to see if I could. I did it for a number of reasons.  One, because I thought about it and it wouldn’t get out of my brain until I did it.  Second, because I like to show off I guess (no point in sugar coating this). Three, I do believe that just about any physical endeavor is a 90% mental challenge. This proved that to me. Finally, I had the time to kill. 

By this point I know you wonder what any of these paragraphs have to do with one another. I promise I’ll bring it all home. 

While I was swimming I had a few great thoughts. First, that I’d spent 20 years trying to be a better runner, working on my weakness, while actually being a great swimmer, a skill I both took for granted and didn’t work much on. Why hadn’t I worked on it as a strength and had I really ever went all in on being a better runner?  Second, I thought that anyone planning on “getting back to normal” was already getting behind. Adapting to what’s coming will be the biggest thing I do, maybe in the last 20 years. Finally, I was reminded again about the power of belief, and belief is what you’re going to need in spades in the coming months. 

There’s a power in belief that supersedes the reality of our situations. For 20 years I’ve wanted to be a better runner/businessperson/dad/husband/whatever. I’ve not believed that I was all the time and what we believe is who we are and what we do. Whether it be belief that we can or that we are worthy or whatever. It’s the driver. 

Wednesday night when I went to bed I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to complete the swim. I hadn’t prepared training at all. When I dove in and took five or six strokes I had 100% confidence that I would be fine. I just believed I could. Yes, I have had decades of endurance and blah blah blah and I completely think most people can do 1000x more than they can. But once you believe. It happens. 

So yeah. Change is upon you. It’s a time for reinvention and unknowns. A lot of people will be forced to make changes. As you go through these times I urge you to try and do this. 

Reach deep. What do you believe in?  What thing can you lean on, even minutely. Can you force the changes through that?  Can you focus on something you’re good at instead of face smashing a square peg through a round hole. Necessity means you sometimes have to do what you have to do, but putting yourself in a place to be successful means focusing on your strengths. Especially now. 

Maybe now isn’t the time to learn a new language if you got an F in Spanish. Maybe it’s time to just speak better English. 

#hugsandhi5s