I honestly don’t think a day has gone by this entire year that I haven’t heard someone say, “I can't wait for things to get back to normal.” This phrase has become part of our daily speech over the past year and a half and it’s starting to irk me a bit.
Here’s why
Where you are today IS your normal; it’s your new normal.
Wikipedia explains a “new normal” as: a state to which an economy, society, etc. settles following a crisis, when this differs from the situation that prevailed prior to the start of the crisis, you have had constant ‘new normals’ throughout your entire life. Every stage of your life has required you to have a ‘new normal:’ every job, every relationship, every housing move, every decision you have ever made created a new normal for you.
Ironically, “new normals” are some of the most normal things we experience in our lives.
Granted, some are mountains while others are molehills, but knowing that you have always had the ability to work through them and get to the next level is empowering. Where you are today IS your normal. Stop thinking it is something else. You can quit waiting for things to get back to someone else’s “normal;” normal is what you make it.
Doing this is about adjusting. That is often the uncomfortable part, and when people get uncomfortable, they tend to focus on the uncertainty. When you focus too much on uncertainty, you become paralyzed. Then, you wait...you wait for things to “get back to normal” before you begin taking action again.
I get it; taking action when there is uncertainty means risk, and risk can be a scary thing. But, it’s the only thing that gets rid of the paralysis that comes with uncertainty.
I took a risk a year and a half ago. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but I’m so glad I did it.
I took a big chunk out of our retirement fund a year and a half ago when the solid floor I had built in my business crumbled under my feet when the pandemic changed our lives forever. I had to. It was the only option at the time to keep my life’s work afloat.
It was the lifejacket within my reach as the tide was rising.
I had one year to pay it back without penalty; I had one year to make it work. At the time, none of us knew how long we would be in this situation. What I did know was that, like any other challenge, you can’t sit there for very long and ‘wait to see what happens.’ When you do that, you give up control, and if you give up control for too long, you rarely get the results you want.
I’ll be brutally honest with you...I was scared to death! I was paralyzed for days about this decision, barely getting any sleep. It wasn’t easy, but it was doable and, even feeling the pressure of the situation, it would give me a chance for a positive outcome.
I had to take a risk. I had to shift. I had to invest my time, my money, and ideas into my business, as I always had, but this time it looked different. But I decided that was okay.
While others were waiting to get back to normal, I was creating my own normal. Things had changed and I had to shift.
I added more products, and it paid off. I created products people could use, and it paid off. I made decisions to move forward, and it paid off. I played out all the scenarios: What if it lasts a long time? What if it doesn’t? What if it comes back later? What if it doesn’t? What if everything stays virtual? What if it doesn’t? No matter what the answers were, I told myself I could make decisions and take control. I did, and it paid off.
The moral of the story?
Don’t wait to make decisions because things aren’t where you want them to be. If you wait for things to return to where they once were or become something they are not yet, you are missing the opportunity of today’s normal. Today’s normal, whatever that looks like, is where you have the most control you are ever going to have. Use that to your advantage.
PS, if you happen to be wondering, I am proud to say the risks I took helped me to also pay off the entire amount I had borrowed from our retirement fund before any penalties happened. This was for our 2021 planner and accessories. I’m happy to say that I didn’t have to borrow ANY money for the 2022 planner and accessories. JOIN US for our launch on September 9, 2021 at 7:00 pm ET on my business page, Step Into Success.