COVID-19 may have thrown up its fair share of challenges, but within them is opportunity. And one opportunity that many business owners are experiencing is to re-evaluate their priorities.
There’s little doubt society will emerge from the current circumstances with a very different mindset, while the current hibernation affords us time to personally re-examine our aims and goals.
So, as you reflect, embrace enforced downtime and spend more time working from home, it begs the question, will your priorities change?
Here are just some of the areas you may find yourself questioning.
Life goals
With so much uncertainty evident at the moment, it’s only natural to find yourself questioning life goals. After all, things quickly come into sharp focus when a global virus has the ability to affect our lifestyle, our finances and our livelihoods so heavily.
That may see you questioning exactly what you hope to achieve in business and personally. It may be the moment you ponder when you last had a real holiday, what you hope retirement will bring, or the legacy you intend to leave.
If you find your vision of these goals shifting, now’s the time to map your real future, laying the foundations of what you intend your life to encompass.
The work/life balance
Recent weeks spent working from home and enjoying additional quality time with your family may also see you rethinking that work/life balance.
Are there new working strategies you will choose to implement in the future as a result of the past few weeks? Do you intend to spend less time in the office in the future and more time at home? If so, how do you intend to make that happen, and is there a way you can still enjoy a solid income and the ability to relish more personal time?
Now is absolutely the moment to question your work/life philosophies. Seize the things that work when it comes to remote working and time spent around the home.
Business commitment
This pause that many businesses have recently been forced into could also see you pondering whether you serve your business or it serves you.
As we’ve discussed previously, now is the time to re-set for the reboot, reconsidering your systems and procedures, but it could also be the moment you really question what it is you want as a business owner.
That may involve weighing up your levels of staffing, perhaps looking at running your business under management, working on it rather than in your business, and ensuring it truly serves your lifestyle.
It may also be the time to look at where your business will be in the future and what you hope it will achieve. Do you one day intend to sell it? Do you one day intend to pass it onto a family member?
Now’s the time to really think about these questions and to start implementing long or short-term goals to help you get there.
Financial commitments
There’s a school of thought at the moment that society will emerge from COVID-19 with different financial priorities.
After a brush with financial hardship and potential health problems, there’s a good chance people will no longer be content to be mortgaged up to the eyeballs, working ridiculous hours trying to make ends meet.
You may well find yourself in this mindset too, facing the realisation that the things you have matter less than the people you share them with.
That means you need to weigh your financial goals against your lifestyle goals and the intentions you have for your business, looking at things with a big-picture perspective of what you really want to have and do.
The final word
At the end of all the pondering and self-reflection that in many ways has been thrust upon us, you may emerge with far different priorities to what you had pre-COVID-19.
That’s OK and it’s very much a part of life. The important thing is to be self-aware, to be clear in your aims and goals, and to then recognise and implement the steps you need to take for the new-you to get what you want to go.
If you find yourself re-evaluating your business, lifestyle, and priorities in the wake of COVID-19, I’m here to assist.
Tap into the wealth of resources available by following my Business Conversations podcast or alternatively reach out directly to me here.
