Life is an integration of different past moments in which “Change” is the only thing Constant. Different philosophies preaches to accept change and move on but our mind has been trained to stick to past and thus makes it difficult to accept change. In Management numerous pages has been spent on “Change Management” but nothing can be a better learning than learning on own experiences. Today when the world is passing through a pandemic, it is best time to learn how to adopt to changes. Although we have to learn it hard way but better late than never.

Today when we are flooded with information on the economic impact of COVID, a question that probably haunt every mind: “Whether I will survive in the world after COVID-19?” The answer to this question lies in introspection and SWOT analysis of self. Darwin will stand true again today, the fittest will survive. To really change our mindset, we need to take baby steps and many religiously do a few things that can churn out a better version of ourselves when the dust settles down, today or tomorrow.

Make a plan

To plan may sometime seem difficult but it is important for better productivity. Planning ahead has many advantages. It helps you to focus into your work. It increases self-confidence and self-awareness. It also helps you to attain your goal in an organized way. To make a strong plan one should be clear about the goal and the purpose. The plan must always be time bound.

Planning and dreaming about the plan to come true is not going to work unless you stay focused and complete the target in the estimated time. You have to visualize it and keep track on its progress, every day. You can prepare to do list for each day and complete the task in proper time.

In every situation at most there should be 3 plan. The plans have to be concise and practical. Plans only work if they are implementable. So you can divide your entire plan into small implementable chunks and complete them step by step.

Analyze threats and opportunities

If you want to utilize your situation appropriately, analyze it with its minute details about what is going wrong? Any opportunity can be identified with these observations. If any threat is observed we can always try to convert it to an opportunity.

Threats and opportunities are opposite sides of same coin. Sometimes what we see as a threat, others see an opportunity in it. Many a times we have heard this, but never have been able to follow. This comes naturally to a person with days of practice. Any opportunity can be identified with observations and analysis. Ability to analyze threat or opportunity is a key factor towards success.

Self-Motivation

Motivation is the cause that makes you act. It is the feeling that keeps you inspired all the time. In a simple way you can say that motivation is related to your desire or need. But motivation is always short lived. To increase the life span of motivation you need to associate your works with a larger purpose of life. To stay motivated you need to keep your desire to reach your goal alive, keep track of your progress. And you may reward yourself after reaching your small targets. Also enjoy your little breaks and not be too hard on yourself. To achieve your goal faster you must get rid of your distraction. You can stay motivated only if you have actionable plans and have analyzed your own strengths correctly.

Embrace risk of failure

Success or failure are apparently brought by luck. Well, I do not believe in luck. You will meet many people with excellent knowledge and brilliant business ideas but they are not successful. What I think is that they never took the risk. We all are well acquainted with the saying that “No risk no gain”. So go out there and take risk to gain in life.

Our every action has an inbuilt risk in it. Success or Failure is a matter of probability when you have kept all above three points constant. However having said that, we fail time and again. In a changing environment the probability of failure is much higher than success. However we need to embrace the risk of failure and keep repeating the above steps.

These thoughts are easy to preach than practice. However there is nothing better that we can do when situations are not in our control. We have to learn to live in a new environment and customize our habits. Old habits die hard, but we have to kill them for our own good. Instead of giving up it is better to learn things the hard way.

(Further reading –Barton, L. (2007). Crisis leadership now: A real-world guide to preparing for threats, disaster, sabotage, and scandal. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Davidson (2001). “Diversity and inclusion: What difference does it make?”. Industrial-Organizational Psychologist.)