“Back to normal…”

Shared by Breanne Smedley

I’ve seen a common sentiment lately.

The desire for things to be “back to normal.”

The way things were before we were cut off.
From our jobs (most of us, at least…)
From our friends.
From our families.
From eating out.
From structuring our lives the way we want.

This situation, COVID19, has forced us all to change.

As the leader of StoryAthlete, Ryan Fletcher, said the other day:

“Sometimes the best way to initiate a significant change in our life, business, or relationships, is to be “forced into a situation” where change is not optional.”

Change, in this case, is not optional.

And, it doesn’t look like things will be “back to normal” anytime soon.

So, we have a choice.

Keep waiting around for things to go back to normal.

Or, chose this time to rethink everything.

Reinvent what’s possible.

Crisis vs Opportunity.

I got together with 12 of my college teammates last week for happy hour.

Via Zoom (don’t panic!).

It was the first time we had all been together in probably 2 years.

We decided to make it a monthly thing.

While I would love to see them in person, I still feel like my heart and spirits were full after I got off the call.

Would we have chosen to do this, had we not been forced to change how we interacted?

History tells me not likely.

The past week and half, I have learned how to reach students, athletes, and players through various online and social media platforms.

In fact, I did my first Instagram Live ever…leading my team through our normally scheduled workout.

As Kristina mentioned the other day, I wonder what this will mean going forward.

For education.
For businesses.
For families and working from home.

As we all are forced to think about so many things differently, I wonder, which things we actually want to go “back to normal?”

For me…
Having in-person birthday parties (instead of through zoom).
Seeing my parents and in-laws.
Having the freedom to travel.
Businesses back up and running that heavily depend on business from people physically showing up.
Sports.
Our community becoming healthy again without the risk of a virus.

These are things that I can’t wait to have back to normal.

But, I wonder, which things will become our “new normal”?

Businesses finding new ways to serve their customers to not rely on in-person business.
Education not relying solely on the classroom (especially higher education).
Employers, seeing what’s possible for primary caregivers to work while caring for children.
Everyone, seeing our climate and the health of our environment improve as we limit our consumption.

It’s safe to say that nothing will be “back to normal” anytime soon.

But maybe, that’s a good thing.

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