The breakneck speed of March and the end of the first quarter of 2022 was not without fanfare. Beaches saw visitors akin to those spring break weeks in recent years, college sports in particular college basketball saw full venues and arenas for the tournaments since pre-pandemic. For a moment just a brief moment things felt like they had before. Before we were forced to do this and not do that. Before this was shut down and you had to figure out how to entertain yourself, society was forced to do things almost one way or not at all, and while there was a shutdown in some sorts various industries still found a way to serve their community.
With so much going on during the first quarter of this year from rising prices of everything from take out to gas, the answer from many were to work harder and longer. If you were lucky enough to do that, perhaps you could just stay afloat. There is also another narrative that’s not being advocated, but perhaps it should be. That is to lean into what you are not doing. This time two years ago the word of the quarter and times was “pivot” and a close second was “innovate.” Not by not doing what they did, but how they did it. Industries refined their skills and came up with new was in how they provided services to their communities. That same mindset of adjustment is what’s needed now.
This time is not a shutdown, rather it is spring board, to refine what we are doing and dive into that skill we have been putting off because things are back to “normal.” Friends and families are flocking to the beaches, the parks are offering soccer, and although a store here or there is still not completely stocked, they are open. The routine so many are seeking or have been seeking the past twenty-four months or so is to get back into is gone. The lost time we try to get back to and recapture has passed and is forever lost.
That does not mean to sulk, procrastinate, and stay stuck by continuing to look back. Rather take this extra hour, this new quarter as pep in your step and march forward into the spring and beyond. With the first quarter now over, measure how many units you sold last quarter and your goal to surpass that this quarter. The reps you got last quarter add two more to it this quarter. All the devices we attach ourselves to daily to follow this person or that person, use it to measure your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly progress, and if all else fails there is that thing called pen and paper. Spring forward in the right mindset. This isn’t a pivot, it’s a leaning into the process, leaning into the project, or that new adventure. The one thing we can count on is how uncertain these times can be, by giving yourself some mental fortitude to lean toward enables you to remain clear and focus despite the surrounding circumstances.
This spring also brought about the confirming of the next US Supreme Court justice. A face that the 200-year-old court has not seen before. A justice whose qualifications are second to none, and who demonstrated unprecedented class in the face of political theater and chicanery. It was a moment in history that should be celebrated especially in the backdrop books in libraries are being taken off the shelf because the history is “too much” for some to take or accept. It means more than symbolism, it means more than progress, it means more than about time. It has been something that has been long overdue, but before there can be two, there has to be one.
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