Lessons from Covid-19

Today is May 18. I am entering week 10 of the Michigan lockdown, knowing that the end of the quarantine is soon … maybe. I have stayed a bit off the grid, communicating with only a few people in my inner circle. I have not written any blogs since the pandemic started, so I suppose this is as good as time as any to return from my seclusion.

Here is what I have come to learn:

I changed my internal messaging from “I should” to “I can”.

At the EAM Consulting Group’s second team meeting during the pandemic, Erik Meier challenged us to increase our prospecting behaviors. I took the challenge personally and increased mine 50%, up to 200 behaviors per week. I did not think about it. I did not debate it. I simply decided that I could.

In the last nine weeks, I have averaged 204 interactions a week. Now, in and of itself, it is not a big deal. Many successful salespeople do more than that. The lesson was that I could change my behavior. I didn’t get bogged down in the mental calisthenics of “should I?” “what if I can’t?” or “what difference will it make?” I told myself “I can,” and I did.

There is much humanity in the world.

All the front-line workers, from grocery store workers to first responders to postal carriers to doctors, have given countless time and energy fighting for a better tomorrow. There is certainly no shortage of tragic stories, but I believe there are twice as many heroic, noble, and uplifting stories. 

Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President, ended his first inaugural address with this impassioned plea concerning the beginning hostilities of the Civil War:

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

What we need in this time of reckoning will not come from outside us, (as in an angel guarding us from above) but instead from within us – something “better” in our “nature” as human beings, of both Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, black and white.

To that I say: Amen.

I like myself.

That is a funny thing to say. Of course, I should like myself. We all should like ourselves.

I have had a lot of time to think about things.

Living alone, I spend a lot of time by myself. It took me awhile to get comfortable with me. I had to learn a whole new routine to living life.

That is a good thing.

Once I became comfortable, I began to see how well I adjusted to the changes. I saw how adaptable, resilient, and creative I can be. I realized that I am who I am – good, bad, and ugly. Am I too silly sometimes? Yes. Do I curse too much? Yes. Can I be moody? Yes. I can change those things if I want to. Ultimately, I am going to be me. And I am okay with that.

Delayed gratification is the ultimate “reset” button.

As we enter week 10, many people are clamoring to get back to their normal routine. People want to go back to work. People want to go out. People want to see friends and family. 

I get it.

Many people are struggling to provide for their families, and I want them to be able to do so. But to what extent do we push for normalcy when we may not be ready? Getting back to it speaks of a “me-centric” mindset.

If have learned anything in Sandler, it is that it is not about me -- it is always about the other person. Let us take a long look at why going back may be good for us, but not good for others. Do we really want it that way? I don’t want to go back too soon, only to have the pandemic resurface in the fall and cripple us again. My gratification can be delayed so that the reset is complete and whole. 

Besides, will we ever go back to “normal”?

As I sign off, let me leave you with a quote that is relevant for our times. The physicist Marie Curie said: "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

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