What’s Next?

I was walking my new rescue dog, Maggie, this morning when I ran into a new neighbor walking his dog. He commented on how much he was looking forward to things returning to “normal”. While I agreed that I was anticipating the day we would be meeting each other face to face again, I didn’t agree that we would be returning to “normal”. We have all been affected by the breadth and depth of the events of this last year and will need to take action to regain our footing.

Author Herman Melville was right when he said, “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” These words have been my impetus for creating a plan of action for how I plan to show up in business and in life in the coming months.

I’ve been taking deep dives into: what I’ve learned about myself and those around me; local and global world events; changes in the way we are doing business; and more. I’m recognizing that there will be some learning curves in the dip I’ve experienced in both social and emotional intelligence. And I’m determined to go into “what’s next” with a beginner’s mind and take the actions that will create the effects I want to have around me.

We all need to take a deep breath and take a step back to look objectively at what we want to be — and to have — going forward. This is a chance to use our experiences to create something meaningful. Change is usually preceded by some chaos. Fortunately, as Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out, “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” Let’s choose to be stars.

This Week: Take some time to think about this past year. What did you lose? What did you gain? What lessons do you want to keep? What do you want going forward? What actions do you need to take to have it? We are always at choice. Choose your way.