Here in the U.S., a record 10 million people have filed for unemployment in the last two weeks, and employment estimates are at a mind-boggling 13%āwhich doesnāt even include gig economy workers.
I have friends who are pregnant, slated to get married, and who have family members who are sick that they canāt visit. On a personal level, I am staying buoyant, although in the last few weeks I have lost 90% of my projected income for Q2, including money that I had been planning on putting directly into a six-month business reserves account long before the pandemic hit.
I did end up applying for the Small Business Associationās COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (also called the Payroll Protection Plan), despite initial hesitations that there were people who needed it more than me.
We are all feeling it. I have been trying to journal through this, both in my 5 Star Spiral Notebook (a 15+ year staple) and my new One Line a Day: Five-Year Memory Book.
Along those lines, today Iām sharing some reflection questions that have been helpful for me and others. Weāre still early in all this, so I recommend revisiting these even on a monthly basis (as well as episode 173 with Steven Morris on beautiful questions that reorient oneās life trajectory).
I am purposefully not going through my analysis on the podcast yet, because I want to give you the space to reflect on your own without influence from my responses, but Iām happy to share in a future episode.
ā¤ļø Finally, remember the Buddhist saying: nothing is permanent, personal, or perfect.
Whatās on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask
Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/180
Background on the Pivoting Around a Pandemic Podcast Series
Background from our kick-off to this Pivoting Around A Pandemic series: With so much happening daily in the world and global economy around coronavirus, weāre all dealing with massive amounts of uncertainty, pivots at work, and for manyāfear and anxiety that comes with not only the health concerns, but questions around how to maintain our livelihoods moving forward.
When Momentum member and pandemic expert Dr. Michael J. Consuelos reached out to offer himself as a resource to the JBE team and the MoMo community, I jumped at the chance to record a conversation for all of you as well, which has now turned into a full-blown seriesālisten to all episodes and watch replays of my Pivoting Around a Pandemic workshops at PivotMethod.com/pandemic Ā»
Reflection Questions
Personal
What did you do well personally to prepare / be prepared? Financial, health, pantry, emergency supplies, mentally, emotionally
What did you miss?
What would you do differently next time, for a pandemic, major economic contraction, or other emergency?
Professional
Black swan eventāunexpected, unpredictable, with extreme consequencesā but even still we can reflect:
How were you well prepared / well set-up for this, professionally? What are you proud of?
What did you miss? What would you do differently next time?
What can you shift right now?
What is this time calling you toward professionally?
Moving Forward
How can you be even kinder / take better care of yourself?
What change or personal evolution are you still resisting?
What lesson/s does life continue delivering?
At the end of April, what will make you proud to look back on in terms of how you handle things and take care of yourself this month?
What is your intuition guiding you toward? Just one next step (and trust youāll always know and be shown the one next step after that).
Resources Mentioned
Resources Mentioned
Small Business Associationās COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan
New York Times:
Articles:
Dr. Susan Bialiās COVID-19āItās okay to feel overwhelmed and underproductive
Pivot Programs:
Pivot Insider: Monthly Q&A with Jenny ā 4/8 features Penney Peirce!
Jennyās Private Momentum Community for heart-based small business owners
Books:
Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Artistās Way by Julia Cameron
Journals:
Related Pivot Podcasts:
Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what Iām reading, watching, listening to, and new tools Iām geeking out on