Are You at the Starting Line?

Depending on where in the world you are located, you may be seeing the world start reopening – maybe in small ways, maybe in big ways. Where I am, a switch flipped one day…Thursday it was masks inside all the time, and Friday it was recommended for those not yet vaccinated. It felt like the world shifted almost as quickly as it had in March 2020. As we go through this transition, we’re all going to have different ways of experiencing it so it’s important to start thinking about stepping up to the new starting line.  Yes, I know that life is not a race to the finish line, but it’s helpful to consider that we are stepping up to something new.

• What kind of race do you want to run? Is it a sprint, a marathon or even an extreme endurance event?

• Is it time to change races?

• Who do you want to be in this race? 

• What “training” do you need and what habits do you need to put in place or shift?

• What pace do you want to run?

• What does the “end of the race” look like for you? 

The good news is that there isn’t a right or wrong answer. There is just the right answer for you and what’s meant to be next for you. You can write the next chapter, building on all of the learnings you’ve acquired during the chapter titled, “Hindsight is 2020…All I learned from a global pandemic.”

Many of you are seeing this reopening as an opportunity…not just to go back to what’s been missing for the past 15+ months but to create new, better, different experiences. It’s important to not just let it happen. It’s time to be intentional about what is next, or we risk falling back into the deep grooves of the habits we’ve been living or have been missing without deciding what is the best answer for right now.

I recently reviewed workshop materials from a session I led in April 2020, titled Defining, Embracing, and Unleashing a “New Normal,” at the time thinking that we’d be returning to normal soon. Alas, that didn’t happen, but the exercises still make sense to consider as we look ahead to some new starting lines.  We should be considering…

• What we value most right now

• What we want our personal life to look and feel like

• What we want our professional like to look and feel like

• What we learned from the experiences of the past months

• What to bring back from past experiences

• What to say “no more” permanently to

• What to add in that wasn’t part of before

We have an opportunity to run a new race – new competitors, new distances, new terrains, new finish lines – if we choose to.  Some thoughts to ponder…

• What starting line do you want to step up to? 

• What state of readiness are you in – trained and ready to go, just starting training, or still on the couch?

• What support do you need to run the race you want to run?

Remember…there isn't a right or wrong answer. 

Pick the race you want to run next. 

Pick who you want to run with. 

Pick where you want to run and when and where. 

These are your choices.

Can’t wait to see you on your starting line!