To Keep Or Not To Keep? Designing Your Post-Pandemic Life

This article first appeared on the Forbes Coaches Council website here.

We are witnessing the very early signs of exiting the "lingering fog" of Covid-19, with the promise of a clear path forward facilitated by the vaccine rollout. In this past week, I have seen several conference organizers announce that their first in-person events since March 2020 are scheduled to take place this November. Many organizations and human resource leaders are planning return-to-work protocols, and there are more and more signs of hope and optimism that we can (at least tentatively) plan beyond the next few weeks in front of us.

Let’s not miss the opportunity of this transitional moment — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reflect, integrate and reinvent a more human experience at work. In addition to the logistical conversations associated with return to work, I encourage you to think about this moment as an inflection point to reflect and integrate what you have learned over the past year. What have you learned about yourself and your choices? How might you navigate the still-uncertain road ahead with clarity and purpose? Is this an opportunity for you to reinvent?

My colleagues and I are halfway through our reinvention mandate interviews — an initiative where we interview professionals who have engaged in the process of reimagining, retooling and evolving their work and careers — and are beginning to see some interesting reinvention themes emerge. Probably the biggest theme so far is how diverse the experience of reinvention can be.

Let’s take the catalyst for reinvention as an example. For some, the ability to live according to one’s values requires a significant life change. For these individuals, the influence of values-based choices determines “what’s next” and is a tipping point for reinvention. For instance, maybe you had to show up to a job every day where the politics ran counter to your values and you had to mask your true self, acting counter to your beliefs. Or you found yourself in a marriage or long-term relationship that required you to live in ways that gradually over time eroded your sense of self. That is, until one day, you look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I no longer recognize this person looking back at me. This is not who I truly am." And you decide to make a change.

For others, the catalyst is not values-based but rather born out of economic necessity, realizing that a career choice will not sustain the financial demands of a family or lead to financial security. Another catalyst might be a result of external factors, for example, the loss of a job, a divorce or experiencing the profound personal and professional impacts of a global pandemic.

As we begin the process of return to work, both external and internal catalytic forces will be at play. I encourage you to make room to integrate your unique experience of the past year. Ask yourself:

• What have I learned about myself?

• What still fits in my life? What no longer fits?

• What will I design and build moving forward?

In conversation with a coaching client last week, we were discussing what she would like to put back into her life now that she is fully vaccinated and ready to plan for the future. We discussed experiences, social obligations, relationships, goals and dreams. As we were talking, it occurred to me that for many of us, our lives have been “Marie Kondo-ed” this past year. Marie Kondo fans will know that in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie’s decluttering methods include taking everything out of closets and drawers and then deciding what to put back in as opposed to the method of removing an item or two here and there. This simple shift — "What will I keep or put back in?" as opposed to “What will I remove?” — is a seemingly small but very impactful reframe. The pandemic has provided this reframe for our lives writ large. So, what will you put back in?

Here are a few prompts to either journal on and/or ask your direct reports, if you manage people:

• Describe your experience of this past year. What were the highs? The lows? What was meaningful to you?

• How has your thinking regarding career goals and development opportunities stayed the same or changed over this past year?

• What did you learn about yourself this past year?

• Describe your ideal week. What delights you about this week?

• Reflecting on your ideal week, what will you do differently/the same moving forward?

• What is possible now?

The beauty and the tyranny of reinvention is that no one can tell you what is meaningful to you. As we emerge from the lingering fog of Covid-19, I encourage you to ground yourself in what your heart is telling you — and to listen to its invitation. Linger with the above questions and take baby steps toward that which is meaningful to you. If you manage people, do not assume that return to work means a tweak here or there with logistics. People's personal and professional lives have been upended in the past year. Meet your people — and yourself — where they are with curiosity and compassion. They (and you) just might be on the cusp of reinvention.