What does my life look like when this pandemic is over?

At the end of a zoom with a mentor, he asked me a wonderful question:

"What does life look like for John at the end of this pandemic?"

Before I get to my answer, let's geek out on this question. The path to the best answers is to seek out the best questions, and this one is dope.

Here's the stream of consciousness for this masterpiece of a question:

• We are making an assumption that the pandemic is going to end. Even though we cognitively know this to be true, it's nice to be reminded of this during these times of uncertainty. This will end.
• We make no speculation around the timing of the end. It will end, but we have no idea when. For purposes of this question, it doesn't matter. We have some finite amount of time, so how will I be intentional with it.
• It is beautifully open ended for the imagination of the answerer to fill a blank canvas. In contrast, see how to "make the most of the pandemic" and "18 ways we can ensure we maximize the potential of every minute of our quarantine." This question isn't that. For some maybe they maximize. For others it might be about maintaining sanity, increasing happiness, allowing for deep reflection, making major life change or keeping things the same. Choose your own adventure.
• We are invited to reverse engineer our time. What is the desired end state? Great, now we have a guiding light on where we want to go, and we can start to act accordingly. This is the proactive vs. reactive framework. It's the intentionality. Do we sit back and respond as things happen or do we take control of our situation and work to move the needle?
• Finally, it allows us some semblance of taking control of the situation. It focuses us. We move away from the victim and towards an active participant in our own story.

Ok. Enough about the question. It's a beauty and one I would highly encourage each of you to spend some significant time thinking about. It helps. Trust me.

My answer is quite simple. When the pandemic has come to and end...

• I have returned to my entrepreneurial roots (either by starting a new company or by taking a leadership position at a very young company)
• I have continued forward on the path of my North Star (more on this in a future post)
• I have adapted my daily routines to be as flexible as needed (the rigidity of my routines in the past has been a source of instability for me with rapidly changing external environments)
• I have strengthened my most precious relationships (in a time of social distancing and quarantining, this one may be the most difficult but I'm ready for the challenge)

Because we are designing the future and I can wave my magic wand to have whatever I want, this is it.

Everything else takes a back seat at the moment. It will be interesting to revisit this list in the future when we return to normalcy. But for now, I'm excited to be an intentional designer of my future.

Entrepreneur. North Star. Flexible routines. Relationships. Let's go.