Many of us have longed for the return of some sense of normalcy. How delicious it would be to travel again, eat out with friends, and simply just be together. This has been painful both emotionally and physically. We are made for community and connection. Full stop. But wait... with vaccines rolling out, this could be our reality again in a number of months, moving about, busy being busy. So while we still have this time of isolation and the space to think and feel, let us use it to our advantage. Pascal observed in 1666 that the fundamental problem of humans is not being content, alone within four walls. (I could go off on that notion, but I will resist.)
What I am suggesting is that we use this time to ponder seriously our purpose—a psychic reset if you will. Consider what Clayton Christensen said to a Harvard Business School gathering about seizing a stolen moment, using the time and space created by being in graduate school to shape you for a larger purpose.
“For me, having a clear purpose in life has been essential...It’s quite startling that a significant fraction of the 900 students that HBS draws each year from the world’s best have given little thought to the purpose of their lives. I tell the students that HBS might be one of their last chances to reflect deeply on that question. If they think that they’ll have more time and energy to reflect later, they’re nuts, because life only gets more demanding: You take on a mortgage; you’re working 70 hours a week; you have a spouse and children.”
The same could be said for us. If we think that ‘someday’ we will have more time to consider what truly matters, our raison d’être, we are fooling ourselves. Life only gets more intense and demanding as we live it.
So, on a practical level, what would I suggest? Here are a few things I would offer so that you emerge from our COVID-19 moment a better version of you.
Create space to reflect. 10 minutes a day.
Just breath and still your soul.
Write down 2-3 simple things for which you are grateful
Walk outside and observe, really observe, what’s around you.
Write down the answers to these three questions:
Throughout my life journey, what have I loved doing?
What makes me light up and come alive
What fear or perceived limitation blocks me from being fully alive?
Write down two things that you SHOULD do this next year (should, as in obligations). Ask yourself: Do I need to keep doing these? Then write down two things you MUST do, things that you know will make you come alive.
The answer to your purpose is hiding in plain sight. It is what you were made for. Black scholar Howard Thurman put it this way: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Australian palliative nurse, Bronnie Ware, observed the greatest regret of the dying she attended in their final moments: “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
So...your move, the Queen’s Gambit.