Change in perspective sometimes requires an active approach. It’s easy to create an opinion from the one and only perspective – yours. However, you may challenge yourself to view the world from other standpoints too.
Think about it, how would you benefit from shifting perspective and seeing the bigger picture? Why not enhancing your abilities of empathy, metacognition and imagination!
The unlucky lucky
For most of us in the developed countries the Corona pandemic imposed disciplinary measures to our daily routines. During the lockdown our roles, responsibilites and identities collided. It did our heads in to work from home and sit in virtual meetings while our kids play the drums and sing their favourite songs. There were no social coffee breaks with colleagues to give us a breather. Also, there were no me-times going shopping or indulging in eating-out dinners. So we ended up discovering scary sides about ourselves that we believe haven’t been there before.
Little did we know about the impact our restricted consumer life had on non-industrialized countries. It wasn’t a big deal not to buy a new shirt for a few weeks, but somewhere on this planet factories stood still as there were no orders coming in. While we struggled with monstrous pressures that swallowed our safety zone and we litterally had no place to hide, other nations suffered food shortages or had no income to pay their bills.
The lucky unlucky
Meanwhile a small group of people actually came to peace during the stand-still. The Corona lockdown became a remedy to them. This group of people are the ones who at the time felt overtaken by society, left-out, disadvantaged, overthrown, maybe even unemployed as a result, somehow existentially fatigued, but educated, absolutely capable and financially relatively stable. Pretty much all those who needed to find a crack in the highly competitive world to start fresh.
There are many such people across the globe. For example, digitalisation has started a trend of boosting revenue by compromising jobs of people like you and I. Suddently, specific positions become obsolete followed by redundancy as a consequence. Another set of people are experienced employees who are reaching a certain age. For them it becomes difficult to adapt to the ever so changing work demands and sadly they are exempt from upskilling. Subsequently, these people usually face many obstacles in society simply by not being part of the mainstream.
When the perpetual carousel breaks
Generally, in the event of loosing your job, you either manage to jump on the carousel again – bearing in mind that it spins extremely fast – or the rather unrealistic alternative is, you make everything around you come to a complete stop – like breaking a kitkat.
Honestly, when (?!) can you actually take a break resting assured that your competition goes to sleep too? NEVER! Your competition never sleeps! Except – during a catastrophic incident that forces a global shutdown of economic trade and social activities.
The socio-economic halt
Then such an incident can feel like going ‘offline’. Like a Sunday in Western societies and a Friday in the Muslim world. No one wants anything from you. It’s a day of peace, but also an opportunity to catch up. For the mainstream a lockdown is unfortunate, but it can be a blessing to marginalized groups. This is the precious moment you have been gifted to grasp that the world stands still – just like you have. You can feel a sudden synchronicity of your inner self with the external world. Depending on the country’s severity of the virus spread, such an off-day can stretch over weeks, if not months. Enjoy that freedom from societal pressures for a bit but also activate your brain to figure out how to get you back on that horse!
Be reminded, you only have a short period of time or even moments until the crack will be sealed. The competition is tirelessly trying to adapt to a temporary life by using virtual technology and organizing their working hours around kids and cooking at home. Once they have recovered from the shock, they will get up again, fully comprehending the situation, mastering the new skills in record time and bring the world to a spin again.
Survival of the best equipped
Furthermore, soon more people might join the competition as the pandemic will cost further jobs. Good news is; when one door closes, another one will open. With a disrupted economy as well as social life new opportunities will emerge. Now it is down to those who are mentally strong, creative and active in their pursuit to be part of the survival team.