Resilience and Compassion in a Strange Time

A couple of days ago I was asked if I would take part in a video series on being resilient that could be shared on LinkedIn as a form of encouragement during the current health crisis we’re experiencing. 

It didn’t take me long to say ‘yes’. 

I created a short less-than-2-minute video that will be shared out today (Thursday, March 26, 2020) using the hashtag #weareresilient. 

Here’s the video:

Then I started to think about what it meant to be resilient and how our lives are a constant test in resiliency.

Some things larger in scope than others, but we’re constantly dealt blows that require us to be resilient. 

Sometimes they’re small like a work project gets a little off track or we miss a deadline. 

Sometimes it’s several small things over a short amount of time that knock us back.

And sometimes, hopefully not very often, they’re big things. We may lose our job, we may get sick, someone we care about may get sick, our marriage may crumble or, worst of all, we may lose a loved one. 

If it hasn’t happened yet, one or more of these things will happen to you. 

During the current pandemic, it’s completely plausible that some people will experience every one of the things I just listed within a short period of time. Things that, if they happen, usually are spread out in terms of months and, more likely, years. Now they can happen within a matter of weeks.

Think about that for a moment. 

The bottom line here is that we need to do a better job of showing compassion and being kind to others. Even when we’re not in the midst of a global pandemic life is still going on and people are faced with challenging situations.

Let’s give each other a little slack. Stop being rude and selfish. Stop being judgemental, especially when you have no idea what someone else may be going through.

We’re going to need to pull together during and after this thing like never before. 

Being resilient is challenging and it’s difficult to do on your own. Having the support of others helps immensely. 

We’re all facing a challenge right now. We’re all feeling anxiety at some level. We need to breathe and focus on what we can control, realizing that the world will be different once we come out on the other side of this.

Let’s make it even more different than it was when we went into this crisis by coming together to help each other out. To stop bickering about frivolous, made-up political nonsense. 

Once the smoke clears let’s look toward the future and view this is an opportunity to press the reset button and make the world better than it was before this pandemic.

#WeAreResilient

Photo by Shlomo Shalev on Unsplash