A fierce contender has emerged in the field of disruption. It’s called COVID-19. It has thrust us into a world of chaos and with the exception of the extroverts, who are rioting in the streets and purposely going the wrong way down the grocery aisles (sorry extroverts, that’s what my introvert friends are saying), we are sitting in our homes with our pets (who are now living their best lives), trying to figure out what just happened to our reality. The number of people touting their status as “gainfully unemployed” continues to….well let’s just say it continues to spike like the fever we are all trying to avoid.
Where did this term “gainfully unemployed” come from? These words should not be used together. I don’t think there’s anything gainful about suddenly finding yourself unemployed. It’s shattering for many. I’m here to suggest that people stop staying it but along with that, I’m going to provide an alternative. Speaking personally, I think what I’ve gained more than anything else during this pandemic is perspective….perspective about all of the things I’ve taken for granted, overlooked and undervalued when I was spending most of my waking hours either head down in work or heads up in traffic. I actually went out in my backyard in the middle of the day last week and smelled the fresh air and the trees blooming with flowers. It was pretty awesome.
Now I know smelling the roses isn’t going to pay the bills but we have to start thinking about recovering, rebuilding and reinventing. There will be an other side to this and our choice of words and mindset is critical. So let’s put our oxygen masks on (first) and start sorting ourselves out. How about a temporary status of gaining perspective? And after we’ve gained some perspective, invested in recovery and put some thought into rebuilding, how about we aim for gainfully reinvented.
