Adjust Your Perceptions About Today’s Change in Your Daily Lives.
“The Great Pause = The Great Acceleration.” These are wise words by author, businessman, and consultant, Rishad Tobaccowala.
Many of us are sitting in our homes, complaining about grocery delivery delays, lack of toilet paper, lack of restaurants and outside excursions, or just being unable to see others. We wake up and go to sleep at night, frustrated by this pause in our lives, and think about when this will end so that we can resume back to our “normal” lives. But what defined our life to be “normal” before the crisis? Did we experience the personal growth that we strove for? Did we try new things? Did we challenge ourselves? Did we go to work every day because we were passionate about it? After hearing Rishad Tobaccowala’s philosophy on change, I have seen the crisis from a different point of view.
How Did This Happen?
I attended a Zoom webinar organized by NYU, hosting Rishad Tobaccowala last week. I had never heard of him, but I was curious to attend his talk, as I knew that he would be sharing his philosophy on authenticity and growth in a time of global change. The almost two-hour webinar flew by, as I was deeply engaged in his words, ideas, and advice. His philosophy resonated with me on a personal level, but also with today’s global pandemic, and I got to thinking about how this crisis will change human behavior, and how to personally tackle the current and future consequences the crisis will bring.
A Shift in My Point of View
I am one of those people who complained about staying home. I do not enjoy being confined in a New York City apartment, the epicenter of COVID-19 crisis, with the inability to get some fresh air. Though, after listening to Mr. Tobaccowala, I realized that this pause does not have to mean a pause. There will never be a true ending to the crisis because humans and society will shift. So, things will never go back to being “normal”, because the normality we once knew, will change. This pause means a time of great personal growth, time, and an opportunity for me to get comfortable with change. His wise words of “keep learning in life” drove me to recognize this crisis as an opportunity rather than a constraint. He mentions three ways to keep learning:
1. Spend one hour per day to learn something new
2. Build a case for the opposite of what you believe in, and why that might be true
3. Do one new thing every-day.
I realized that these are still possible to do from home I have been given all the time needed to do so. I have time to think about what truly matters to me, where my opinions lie, what my passions are, and I have time to learn more about myself than I ever did. I realized that I would go about my day, be busy and forget to take time for myself to think about fundamental questions that define me. Mr. Tobaccowala mentioned that it takes 90 days for a habit to form. These 90 days will indeed bring change. What I can do, is concentrate on building habits that will bring positive change, as I plan to keep learning about myself and the world.
Mr. Tobaccowala connected parts of his philosophy with certain chapters of his book, Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data, which I purchased, as I was inspired bythe talk. I highly recommend others do too!
