The value of a crisis
I’ve got a post-it note on my wall. It’s been there for a week or so. It reads:
“Why does it take a crisis for us to make big changes?”
This was no more than an idle thought but since it’s been up on my wall, I’ve been thinking more and more about it. Specifically, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I might see upsides, as well as downsides, to the coronavirus situation.
The downsides of the current situation are obvious and many, as they probably are in any kind of crisis. For some, life is genuinely in jeopardy. For most, there is some level of distress, life has been distorted and things feel tougher than normal. Life has been compromised by events out of our control.
The upsides are fewer and less obvious. But the gains can be great. To find them can be the difference between wallowing in fear and discovering a new trajectory and energy, either personally or professionally.
I’m currently reading a book called ‘Antifragile’ (see here) that speaks positively about ‘stressors’ in our lives that helps us make changes for the better. To discover information that helps us be more adaptable; to recognise something in ourselves we hadn’t noticed before; to develop some new skill or capability.
I see that crisis can be good for me because it forces things. It forces me to confront what isn’t working, to rethink. To sort the wheat from the chaff. To do what I wouldn’t normally do. To break my habits and norms — and to create new ones.
Here are a few notable upsides I’ve found during the last couple of months:
Focus — the crisis has helped me understand what is truly important and worth my attention, and what is not. I love the feeling of focus. It encourages flow and productivity. I have more of that now than any time I can remember in recent memory.
New perspective — the crisis has provoked me to find different angles on challenges and gain new insight. I’ve been more open to new thinking, I’ve been reading more and enjoying controversial points-of-view.
Risk — the crisis has encouraged me to see risk as a positive not a negative. I’m a pretty conservative (small ‘c’, I should add) type of person who doesn’t enjoy risk usually. But in a crisis, I think risk suddenly has an appropriateness, and I’m happy to factor it into things.
Urgency — the crisis has compelled me to act, or make decisions, now, rather than reserve them for some other time. It feels like there’s no time like right now to push forward and act decisively. I’m moving faster than ever.
Perhaps none of this is that surprising. The biggest leaps in the evolution of our planet were made possible by crises. A massive asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs but created the conditions for mammals to emerge and prosper. Nature loves a crisis and maybe it’s hard-wired in all of us to use situations like these to propel ourselves forward.
