Finding Your Silver Lining
Remember how people were so eager to round the corner and get to January 1, 2021? And now, just 2 weeks in, memes are abundant about saying ‘no’ to that trial offer. One research respondent even asked me, on January 8, if we could just skip ahead to 2022.
It’s as though another date change will offer something more than symbolic recognition of the promise of a new year.
It’s cliché to say that 2020 is “one for the record books” given the society-rattling team-up of pandemic, recession, police brutality, social injustice, and federal election. There’s been a lot going on. Enough to make us wishfully, wistfully think a new year on a calendar page will suddenly make it all go away. Rationally, each of us knows that’s not the case. But we can dream. We also have the ability to reflect on the positives that have come from the past year. The silver linings of an otherwise reality-shattering span of 12 months.
Finding your silver lining can be as straight-forward as looking “on the bright side.” What is the good in your current situation? What have you not lost that you are thankful to still have? Each of these can be a silver lining.
For me, a silver lining has been the absence of something that I love. Travel. My work in consumer behavior and insights requires a lot of travel. More than 150+ nights a year on the road, not counting vacations. Since March 10, 2020, I have been ‘grounded’ like so much of the rest of the world, working from home, relying on Zoom and Teams to connect with the people I’d normally fly to go see in person. While I miss seeing people and seeing the world, it’s actually been fantastic to sleep in my own bed every night rather than try to remember which way the bathroom is in this day’s hotel room.
Silver linings took many different forms for the respondents of Ignite 360's Navigating to a New Normal longitudinal study. Some recognized the power of family and the ability to spend more time with their kids. Others recognized the way communities have come together to help each other. And still more appreciated how they are saving money.
What silver linings have you found?
