During the last month that I have been in voluntary quarantine at home, I have had the opportunity to talk to many people, perhaps more than I talked to before this pandemic. Some of us have contacted each other to find out about each other, other times it has been more like conversations to let off some tension, and in other cases related to work, projects or the idea of being able to do something about this situation that has suddenly impacted everyone’s life.
The first few weeks there was more tension in the atmosphere and now, it seems, people have become accustomed to this new way of living. However, one of the things I see over and over again when I see publications on the internet, talk to people or see some news on some web portal (I do not watch news), is the enormous economic impact that this situation is generating and that, according to experts, will continue for a long time to come.
Clearly I am not oblivious to this nor do I live in a cloud, however, I have been this time focused on raising my eyes and being able to refine my vision, and that is precisely what I want to share with you. I want to warn you that I may be wrong, that it may not make sense to you, or that it may just be a silly idea. However, I believe that maybe it is not and it can be useful for you (at least it makes sense to me).
Every time you have lived through a crisis, regardless of the time or type of crisis, things begin to move and change to a greater or lesser extent. This movement, as when one moves the soil in the garden, brings with it new spaces, which are somehow filled until the soil is compacted again but in a different way. I am convinced that this is what we are experiencing now in all industries and fields. Therefore, what if we start looking at those spaces or gaps that are being generated and start thinking about how they can be filled? I believe that today we are facing a sea of opportunities, however, at this very moment, opportunities dress, walk, move and call differently than they did just a few weeks ago.
It is imperative, if we are to find the opportunities that will help us in our present and future, that we learn to recognize what looks different but will open new doors in the time ahead. Perhaps, our emotional state because of all that we are living is precisely what does not help us to look differently to find something (we should not pretend to see everything) that can be the key to the next door that we can open.
I want to make you an invitation… I want you to start taking some time every day, 10 or 15 minutes would be enough, to start thinking about your industry or closest context, and that you can start imagining how this situation changed the way or priority in how we do things, and then ask yourself: what opportunities open up with this that were not there before? If you practice, I assure you that you will begin to see how a new horizon full of options opens up, and then you can analyze them and choose those that make sense to you, where you feel you have an advantage because of your skills or experience, and from there you can take the next step for your present and future, because if there is something that crises bring, at all times, are new opportunities.