Rethinking Rethinking
2 years ago I had the worst day of my life. I was sitting in my office at work, and just received an estimate from our contractor who was working on a major remodel of our home. Through a few months of work and delays (mostly from various county and city departments for lack of proper permits) we were behind schedule and over cost. 2/3 of the house was complete and we were out of budget. We asked how much more we needed to finish, and he informed us that our original budget was what was needed to finish – effectively doubling our costs at a minimum. I was sunk. No way I could afford it. Thoughts began racing through my head: “Am I going to have to sell as is? Are we going to have to go back to renting? How do we recover from this? Are we going to have to rethink our ‘plan’?”. I spent the rest of the day staring out my window, unable to move.
I’m happy to report that things ended up as good as they could. After a lot of thought and planning with my wonderful wife, we decided to rethink the rethink: we decided to take what we had and make it work. Instead of bailing, we pressed forward on our own, doing as much of the work ourselves as we could (and learning a lot of good skills in the process – thank you home care Youtubers...yeah, I grout now). It certainly was not a period of my life I wish to revisit. Sweating in my unfinished home at 4am priming the walls for a neighborhood paint party the next morning was not pleasant, but considering how it could’ve gone had we pulled the eject cord, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
The last couple weeks have been every bit of the definition of a crisis. Worldwide pain and death come from an invisible invasion. People are being told to “shelter in place” all over the world, causing everything from boredom to anxiety to seagull muggings. Certainly, this could be a time to rethink some long-term thinking. I’ve been exposed to this proposition in almost every component of my life during the last 2 weeks: work, school, and home (thank you universe for sending a 20 year earthquake to Utah this week – great timing). I’m not going to say that it is unfounded either. What I would like to suggest though, is that we at least take a moment to rethink the rethink.
Right now, a lot of things seem up in the air: public health, economy, even potentially a new normal. Some evidence suggests taking some strict measures over the span of 3 months could help to avoid long term effects. Some evidence suggests that may not be possible because of early decision making. I’m open to the idea that the long term could change because of COVID-19 (even possibly for the better, fingers crossed). But I’m going to do my best now to take what we have and make it work. There will be an impact because of this pandemic, but we don’t need to sell the house. We can buckle down and work hard to rebound. HolonIQ has done some phenomenal work assessing the potential impact of the virus on education and EdTech in the short and long term based on a worldwide network of experts. It looks like I may not be alone in expecting near term effects.
Don’t get me wrong. Hard but short-term adjustments need to be made. But we will overcome this. Our horizon is deeper than a few months. Our collective effort to follow the CDC recommendations now and bear through a few strange months will ensure that our 5 and 10 year plans remain achievable. We can keep the house but we have to make some sacrifices.
Hopefully this finds you safe and sound. If not, I’d like to offer more than thoughts and prayers. Feel free to reach out if you need anything. Some words of wisdom below if you feel like you need a reminder of how great uncertainty can be.
Stay well. Our fears pale our potential.
“The only way to achieve the things that you want is to be uncertain of them.” – Mark Manson