Finite Energy
At some point in South Africa (where I live), unencumbered by what science says, we reached a point where COVID-19 was fully cancelled from every aspect of our lives. We got tired of living in fear and paranoia. We got bored with limiting ourselves when we craved to take up more space physically and socially. Coming out on the other side of the pandemic, there is a wide spectrum of how we are respectively coping. For some people, life is virtually back to their previous normal but there is also a big middle space where I reside trying to create a new normal. My approach is about taking the best parts of my lockdown life plus the best parts of my pre-lockdown life with deep layers of urgency that come with getting older.
If 2020 was the year that the previous normal was eviscerated, 2021 was the write-off year most of us simply wanted to survive and 2022 is the year where storm clouds have parted, allowing us to think “where to from here?”
Having suffered various forms of loss and a keen sense of limited time and energy, I find I am not the only one applying laser focus to make sure I am productively pursuing the right things, even if it means doing fewer things well. This soul-searching is not new to me based on what I’ve previously written about. What’s in the foreground for me in 2022 is an exacting specificity about where my energy goes and generating quality choices about where to put it.
My energy audit has been circling on:
What is worth my energy?
Is my field of choice improving? If not, what am I doing about it?
To what extent is that in sync with where my energy is actually going?
What has changed as a direct function of my effort weekly / monthly?
For who I am in 2022: what am I interested in (I do if convenient) versus what am I invested in (I do because I am committed)?
In what areas am I willing to undergo fundamental change as I invest my energy?
The cosmetic versus fundamental change comparison will be an interesting dynamic for all of us as we reflect on who we are post-pandemic.
Steam and ice are both interchangeable forms of water. Water’s ability to transition between the two states is akin to a cosmetic change. However, graphite with enough pressure, heat and time becomes a diamond. The change is irreversible as it fundamentally alters the chemical composition of its source material.
Coming out of this pandemic, I think we are in a game-changing 1-2 year period where each of us needs to employ our personal agency early to shape how we want to live and establish a moat to protect those preferences. Some cosmetic changes you may wish to roll back eg. you learnt to healthily cope with isolation as a temporary measure as an extrovert but given the chance, you are now back to socialising full force. Some fundamental changes are here to stay, which seems to be the case, for example, when you look at employee advocacy for hybrid work models in applicable industries and job types.
For my part, my new normal has put me in an energy field that is renewable whereas I used to tap out from being ill-equipped to relate to work (however much I enjoyed it) in ways that did not induce stress or frustration. Amongst other ways, that looks like being able to do technical and creative work in parallel as both are important to me. Having one without the other leads to imbalance.
The hardest thing for a deeply self-aware person is to live in mis-alignment with what they know to be true about themselves, and I believe many of us have acquired new depths of self-awareness in these past 2 years.
With it, decision-making gets easier. Whilst experiencing the abundance around us, discernment grows about what to do, when to do it and why to do it from a highly personalised perspective. This instils calm confidence.
The new normal isn’t all roses by any stretch of the imagination. However, I think it has introduced some positive existential (and hopefully fundamental) shifts that sagely remind us:
“We are human beings not human doings”.
