Listen To This Podcast

Summary

The world's response to the challenge of COVID-19 represents a huge disruption to so many lives and careers. Three ideas that might serve during this time are:

1) Look Up From Your Career

2) Are You Serving the World?

3) Think About Other Stuff More

Full Transcript

I haven't made too many of these videos in a while but thought it was high time I did because, my goodness, the world has certainly changed in the last four weeks with the COVID-19 virus response.

It's going to have a huge impact on the working world with people's careers and industries. A lot of people are suddenly, unexpectedly out of work. A lot of people are working from home either for the first time or, a lot more than they thought they would. Other people are worried about their jobs. It's a huge disruption, which can be really unsettling, especially if you trying to think about your career or somebody just starting out trying to think about your career.

I thought I'd offer three ideas that might serve you during this wild, crazy, uncertain, somewhat scary time. 

1) Look Up From Your Career

So often, our careers can be like a river flowing by. We don't always have a great sense of how fast the river is moving, or which direction its going, until we look up and see the banks of the river to see the stuff flying by.  With our careers, sometimes we don't realize that we are caught in a stream. 

In terms of your career, a disruption like this may offer an opportunity to gain a better sense about where you are, how fast you're moving, and - maybe - that you need to change direction. Don't lose this opportunity - even though it's scary and uncertain - to take a minute and use this as a chance to do some thinking about where your career is headed. When the stream picks up and it becomes easier to go with the flow again, which direction do you want to be headed, when you don't necessarily want to go with the flow?

2) Are You Serving the World?

This is a great time to do some thinking about how the world is changing. There are going to be a lot of things that people needed that they don't need anymore and a lot of things people need but that can't get. Is the work you do still satisfying a need that world has? If not, what could you offer the world that it needs? How could you change what you do in a way that offers the world something it needs? 

If you can offer the world something it needs that nobody else is offering, that's a great way to do work that matters and has an impact on the universe. 

3) Think About Other Stuff More

Lastly I'd just say, as somebody who thinks a lot about work and careers, this may be a time to lay off thinking about your career a little. This may be a time to focus more on your own self-improvement, to skill-up, and also a chance to better connect with family and friends. This may be a time to perhaps not take for granted so many things, which even just a month ago, might have been easy to take for granted: things like walking outside, or going to a store, or going out without a mask, or going to an office, or riding a subway - all of that. 

The world has changed. The axis of the world has changed its tilt for better or, hopefully, not too worse. Some people are getting sick, or worse, and nobody wants that to happen. So this is a great time for you to stay healthy, to focus on your family staying healthy and strong, to protect those you love and care about. This is a great time to put yourself in a position where you're ready for the time when career opportunities break open such that you'll be ready to take advantage of it. This is a great time to get ready to align your career in a way that serves you and your family, and serves a world that is clearly in need. 

Want more great career tips? Sign up here.