It’s a difficult time, for individuals and for businesses, but it’s a really interesting time, too. I know from contacts and clients and friends and even a few strangers that people want to look ahead, to move forward. They’re trying to get on, trying to get some form of normality back, trying to remake themselves for the new world we’re living in.
They want their lives to be better, more ambitious, more real.
My own experience chimes with that. I went through a lockdown process that started with anxiety and fear, and ended with a kind of transformation. I realised that to make life work I needed to remould both my business and my mindset. Out with the old, corporate-shaped me, and in with the new, personable me. I’ll still be working with corporate clients, helping them to adapt and thrive in the new landscape, but the ‘new, personable me’ will work one-to-one with individuals at a personal level, and I’ll be real and open about who I am and what I’ve got to offer like never before.
I’m working that way already, in fact, and it feels right. Right for me, right for the people I’m helping to enrich and develop, and right for now – for the new, flexible-hours, working-from-home, direction-changing world we’re in.
At the heart of how I’m helping people right now are four things: structure, purpose, wellbeing and positive energy.
Structure is something we took for granted: we’d get up, brush our teeth, go to work and operate all day in the workplace routine. For many of us, that’s now gone. Daytime and nighttime don’t feel so different, and work, eating and relaxing overlap messily on the sofa, the floor, the kitchen table and in bed. So we have to recreate structure for ourselves.
Purpose means much more than just having things to do. Many people made work their purpose, but what I’m talking about is bigger than that: a life purpose. I find that when you have a purpose, energy comes. I’ve become absolutely clear about my purpose since lockdown, and it’s joyful. It’s clarity.
Wellbeing gets ignored when life’s busy, but during the isolation and confinement of lockdown we had time to look at ourselves, and the link between wellbeing and mental health became clear. I’m helping people to find more time for themselves and to think about what they can add into their daily lives to boost their wellbeing.
Positive energy is what we all need! We make life difficult for ourselves by forgetting what makes us feel good, or by shying away from it because we feel selfish. I’m working really hard to enable people to understand and unlock their positive energy.
These four things are the foundation you can build on.