Isolation Disruption Creates Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity
The COVID – 19 coronavirus outbreaks
have led to a disruption in our normal life. While this disruption creates
significant stress, it also creates personal and professional development
opportunities to learn, write, teach, and connect with others.
There is a lot of uncertainty as to
when the situation will become normal again. The adjustment to a new working
routine will be troublesome initially. The isolation period is affecting
everybody, with no face-to-face interaction that we used to do in the office,
lunch hours, and coffee breaks.
The key to survive this is to enjoy
the work along with the flexibility we get, and it will be easier to adjust to
working from home.
The primary step in redefining how
we want to spend our day in a work from home environment is to create a
personal strategic plan. This plan can help the individuals check their daily
lists of tasks and will help them in making a room for extra initiatives
thereby defining clearly what needs to be done on priority basis.
The Component of our personal action
plan are like a business plan and include:
- Clarify Your Values.
What values and virtues do you most admire and wish to practice going
forward?
- Create a Mission Statement. A description of who you want to be and what you want
to do in the future, leveraging your personal skills and strengths
- Perform a Skills and Strengths Audit. What do you like doing the most and what are you best
at that other people will value?
- Determine Area of Excellence. What will you do to achieve results that are far
beyond what the average person could be expected to accomplish?
During times of isolation, a
personal strategic plan can bring a sense of control back to our life. It can
help us to be proactive in achieving our goals and will serve as a guide for
our daily routine.
Having a personal development plan will help offset some of these challenges like tendency to wake up later than normal, spending too much time around the refrigerator and finding excuses not to focus on the things that made you happy in the past (working out, socializing, spending time with your family, etc.).
Amanjot Kaur
Research Associate, Athena Executive Search & Consulting