Of rising above limitations, adapting and upskilling

When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other and with the realm of nature doesn’t work anymore, when survival is threatened by seemingly insurmountable problems, an individual life-form – or a species – will either die or become extinct or rise above the limitations of its condition through an evolutionary leap.” – Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.

In times of crisis, we need to remember more than ever that we have the power to choose how we deal with it and emerge from it. It’s a road to success that starts with mental discipline, asserts Sherrie Campbell, psychologist and author of the article “8 Mental Disciplines More Powerful Than Self-Doubt”, published by Entrepreneur SA. “Success, happiness and fulfilment boil down to how we think,” she says. “Our beliefs about life become the exact mirror experience we live – actions follow thoughts.”

I’m not the only person who made a choice at the beginning of the pandemic to emerge as a better version of myself, and it’s been made easier by being able to access a wealth of positivity and doable advice along with some really amazing people. I’m also using the experience of my almost 20 years of writing from home, which may be of use to you:

A designated work space For me, this is key to productivity. I get up, get dressed and go to “work” every day. While I’m lucky enough to have a desk on our landing, it is possible to set up a work space almost anywhere – the garage, a section of the dining room table or the breakfast counter, even outside when the weather’s being kind. Friends have done it, and I’ve done it. Is it easy? No? Doable? Yes.

Limiting the negative By the time I get to “work” I’ve listened to / read the news. It’s important to filter what you allow into your mind: too much negative noise saps your energy. I’m not inured to what’s happening in the world, but I am getting better at not allowing the negativity to influence my mood. I don’t want to be an expert on topics such as the pandemic, I just want the facts, so 15 minutes or so and I’m done. If I’m still hungry for news or human voices, I tune into Hot91.9, a communitybased radio station that plays music from the 60s, 70s, 80s and even some contemporary sounds, interspersed with bursts of humour from the DJs, news briefs and interviews along with ongoing fundraising and marketing campaigns for people and businesses that are battling. Focusing on the positive, the helpful and the inspirational helps me balance the negativity.

A diary, a to-do list and a routine My diary, my A4 “to do” work book and a routine are my blueprints for a purpose-driven day. At the outset of the crisis, I let these habits of half a lifetime slip as appointments were cancelled and deadlines moved. The result was a feeling of aimlessness, of being disconnected. I’m back to my old habits now albeit with a new twist: interviews and appointments are virtual, either via email or on Skype, Zoom or WhatsApp, and training is in the form of webinars on every imaginable subject. I list and allocate time to doing things, part of my routine which grounds me and encourages me to focus (even though I don’t always get to complete them in time.)

Focusing on your core The world is slowly returning to work with cataclysmic job losses and indebtedness in its wake. If ever there was a time to focus on core business skills, this is it. Pacific Crest Group in its article says it’s “mission critical that systems be put in place to measure the overall performance of each segment of your core business. Devising the strategy and implementing it are two very different things. The solution lies in focusing on your company’s core business. Your core business is defined as the products, services, customers, distribution channels and geographic areas that yield the largest return on your investment (ROI).”

It makes sense to me to identify the things we do best, the products which people want most, and then cutting out or at least trimming unnecessary operating and other expenses. Not easy when it involves terminating or renegotiating leases, selling property or retrenching staff but if we’re to survive and then thrive, we need to ask ourselves what the market wants now, and what it can afford, answer honestly and then do what has to be done.

Digital and other products growing in popularity Among the products enjoying increasing uptake around the world is digital. In an article on Fortune Adam Seessel says “The extended distancing of consumers from retail has further accustomed people to search and purchase goods and services online, so digital’s share is likely to continue to climb. Likewise, shelter in place has made us even more addicted, if such a thing were possible, to our mobile phones. This is bullish for its Android segment. Finally, Alphabet’s cloud-computing division, which was already picking up steam under new leader Thomas Kurian, will benefit from a massive surge in working and learning from home.”

He goes on to say: “Just as there are dozens of … companies enjoying short-term tailwinds that will soon pass, there are dozens of Alphabet- and Amazon-like companies with long-term tailwinds that will emerge better and stronger on the pandemic’s other side. Crises like these present great opportunities to buy them. You just have to ask the right questions to find them.”

Another future-looking article “Coronavirus Shopping Trends: 8 Popular Product Categories Right Now” , a global leader in commerce marketing, speaks of “significant changes in consumer trends … which has put pressure on businesses to find ways to adapt. While people maintain social distancing, video calls are booming. The more time they spend at home, the more consumers are starting to think about the things that matter each day: working remote, learning remote, exercising at home, cooking at home, entertaining the kids, and spending time with the family.”

Also food for thought is Adobe’s “Digital Economy Index: Tracking the State of Ecommerce During Covid-19 and Beyond”. Created to provide business leaders with up-to-date information on the digital economy that they can use to anticipate broader economic trends, the Index will expand beyond the United Kingdom and the USA to every country with a significant digital economy in time. John Copeland, vice president of marketing and customer insights at Adobe, talks of an “incredible upswing in ecommerce spending in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, which suggests that there’s a strong need for an understanding of how pricing trends and inflation in online sales compares to and impacts those same trends in overall sales. What people are buying online is expanding as one-day delivery, buy online / pickup in-store, and other fulfilment innovations are making more products digitally accessible,” he says, adding: “Companies need to pay extra special attention to their digital and eCommerce experiences right now. Consumers are less forgiving during a time like this, and the companies that meet and exceed their needs will build loyalty and life-time value.”

New skills If you’ve lost your job, are working short-time or concerned that your current skillset needs a boost in order to be able secure employment in the future (and you might surprise yourself at the things you’ve learned during lockdown that could serve you well going forward: working unsupervised, bolstering your productivity and better managing your time), now’s the time to add a skill or two. “You won’t know what skills you need to bolster until you assess your current knowledge, so it makes sense to start with a diagnostic,” says the World Economic Forum. “PwC’s free Digital Fitness app, for example, allows anyone to assess their skills as well as boost knowledge in topics that help shape your behaviors and mindset.”

It continues: “Whatever reserves of resilience you have will likely have been tested – and you can draw on that as you move forward. Planning for the future in uncertain times is tricky at best, but we can extrapolate how things might shake out by doing some personal scenario planning, similar to the way businesses set strategy. The key is to begin thinking about where demand for work will exist and how best to prepare for those spaces, while realising that there are real uncertainties in the answers to those questions. The type of work that is robust across a lot of different futures is not a bad way to start.”

Online news platform You.matterworld also advocates learning new skills to better meet the challenges of the post-Covid workforce. “The job market of the future will need unique human qualities such as social intelligence, systems thinking, imagination, innovation, creativity, improvisation to solve unexpected problems or empathy,” says article author André Gonçalves. “These skills aren’t (at least yet!) ready to get an algorithmic shape. Moreover, the tech industry is viewed by Americans as the most resilient in these times. And this industry involves much more than programming robots. It includes, for instance, developing websites with plenty of different functionalities, SaaS solutions or securing the bandwidth, storage, and safety of all the other tech-dependent sectors: from the financial sector to huge retailers like supermarkets, the healthcare sector or education.”

Lastly, I’ve learned the value of closing my laptop after work and figuratively going home. There’s no sense in burning out, and a lot to be said for switching off, sharing a meal with the family, reading a book and then getting a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will bring with it new opportunities, and I am going to be refreshed and able to recognise and use them.

Ingrid Olivier, Editor