Making the Most of Self-Isolation – My Top 5 Tips
Well – what a month it’s been.
The world keeps spinning on its axis amidst great uncertainty. Every country, community and business is affected by the current times slightly differently. How we individually and collectively handle isolation varies. When my global team and I got together last month for our regular call, the unifying nature of the fact that we had all been ‘up and down’ spoke volumes about the cycles we are moving through.
Amongst those cycles, I thought I would share what I’ve been doing to make the most of self-isolation.
Here are my top 5 opportunities to make the most of this tough situation.
1. Fall back in love with what you do
With a slower pace of life and fewer distractions, it’s been a great opportunity to really reconnect with what we do and why. Dare I say it, I think I’d begun to resent our fledgling Coach M a bit for a whole variety of reasons. I was busy, under pressure, always having to invest more and more resources. But things have slowed and we’ve had a chance to be more considered and take time to enjoy our own work. I’ve definitely rediscovered my love for Coach M – which of course was there all along. It was me that was distracted and discombobulated. Coach M remains, bright, shiny, clever, insightful and available at any time. What’s not to love?
2. Be inspired
Can I be forgiven for thinking I’d not be able to be inspired inside my apartment with myself for company? What would I have to look at? What would I do at the weekends (apart from spending copious amounts of time on Zoom!) I couldn’t have been more wrong. Inspiration at every turn. My top 3 have to be: The Barnes Collection clips – you must message me if you’ve been to the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia, my favourite art gallery in the world. They have created the most delightful tours of rooms and favourite pieces, sharing information about the artist and story behind the art. Check it out. The second inspirational highlight has been the new ID Crowd website. Have you seen it? I just love the way the Crowdlings show up in the world and the new website is enough to inspire anyone to upgrade their web presence – go Nic White and team. And a third which must sneak in here is Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast. So much richness – every episode’s a keeper.
3. Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!
This might be a bit counter-intuitive, especially as very small and very big business is going through the P&L, asking “do we need this line item?” and downgrading every subscription and plan that is non-essential – however in other areas, it’s time to upgrade big time. I’m upgrading the amount of exercise I’ve been doing. I ran 7km last week, keeping on track using the “Coach to 10k” app – it’s an upgrade for sure. And drumroll… I’m so excited about the upgrades we are doing with Coach M I can hardly keep it under wraps. All will be revealed in a few weeks’ time but let’s just say it’s VERY exciting.
4. Take advantage of the free stuff
Or even just enjoy that people are generous. Can you believe how generous everyone is being? You’ve got a few more days left to take advantage of the free month of Pluralsight and many other free courses that have been available online. Everyone on my team has been doing different courses, from Yale University’s The Science of Well-Being to Sarah Cordiner’s Building an Online Course. We are loving the opportunity to immerse ourselves in our learning.
5. Share and care
The final tip to manage isolation is to enjoy the sharing and caring of the community as everyone pulls together against adversity. I enjoyed sharing last month How to Lead a Remote Team in Challenging Times – if you missed the recording and you want to reinvigorate your remote skills as a leader you can access it here. I was delighted to hear too of a mini webinar that Cherry ran for a dozen of her friends in the Philippines last week for how to use Canva – great community learning. Keep reaching out, caring and connecting.
If you’ve got this far and are reading this and thinking this all sounds very rosy considering the seriousness of the situation, this is how we tend to roll at Lever as much as we can – note though the up and down in the first paragraph. That being said every country and home is having a different experience. If you are finding self-isolation tough, and are perhaps juggling family commitments and working from home, or worse still you or your loved ones are ill or have experienced loss at this time, you are in our thoughts. Reach out if we can support you in any way.
And of course let’s also take a moment to acknowledge the work of essential service workers, especially those in the hospitals, on the front line who are nothing short of incredible. Selfless work in the hardest of circumstances. Your resolve and dedication is inspiring too. Thank you.
I hope these ideas from self-isolation can inspire you to keep learning and exploring. We are all in this together – alone.
Sending my very best.