In the right business?
I’ll bet this story won’t be new to a lot of people. COVID-19 effects are far reaching and they certainly reach further than just getting it or not. That’s a genuine concern but in New Zealand at this time, not the primary one.
What I’m seeing is a lot of soul searching going on in business owners. Sometimes that soul searching is for existential reasons such as the many tourism operators for whom business has just stopped dead.
But others have been effected by COVID in different ways. Their business still exists. It might be battered and bruised and need a bit of work to get back to health. It might have been decimated but is recoverable. Alternatively it could have come through largely unscathed.
The interesting thing is the commonality that can be found in the thinking of many owners in each category. This thinking is part philosophical, part emotional, part physical and for some, partly spiritual.
The question comes down to this. Do I still want to do what I’m doing? It’s a question that may not have come up for most if not for COVID and as I said, the direct effects aren’t the salient point. It’s the fact that COVID slammed a big interruption into normal transmission. For the first time in a long time, powerful people in control of their world fouund themselves with no control.
Some of these people puffed up and said “fuck you. No-one tells me what to do” and continued behaving as they always have but their status in society turned from Master of the Universe to naughty irresponsible boy (mostly boys) putting us all at risk.
But the unavoidable and incomprehensible interruption caused a couple of significant effects. The first and most obvious was to increase the intensity and incidence of depression and anxiety. That part is expected in a circumstance like this. It certainly hit me that way.
More interestingly it also caused people who may not normally do much self-reflection to become reflective. I guess that’s not so surprising when there’s nothing else to do.
People started reflecting on their lives. What is the state of my relationship with the people in my life? Am I loved as I want to be? Am I loved as I deserve to be? Am I respected? Do I give the love that my people deserve? Do I really enjoy what I do to make money? Is there more out there I haven’t explored? Is there a business that would be more exciting and inspirational to me? Do I have the courage to step away from this? Do I have the energy to keep going? How can I finally find that “balanced life” I’ve always given lip service to?
I’m working with a number of people who are looking at life like this. It’s a strange place to be. Supporting businesses where the owner is asking such questions means taking a step back and recognising that what you are working with is a holistic picture. It is all of life.
Where it generally lands is the basic question - “what do you want to use your life for?” We’ve all realised that we only have so much time here and for many, we’ve already had half or more of out allotted time, so the clock is ticking.
Success has many forms and looks. It might be recommitting to what you already do, or it could look like a complete change. These are difficult conversations because they cause us to have to dig deeper into our pysche than we normally would.
If you’d like to have a free, no-obligation and totally confidential conversation about where you’re going, where you’d like to go or especially if you’re just stuck and confused, I’m a pretty good listener and have some constructive ideas about how you can re-energise and move powerfully ahead.
Call me. +64 275 665 682 or email me at john.luxton@regenerationhq.co.nz