When we become good at something we start to define ourselves by our ability to do that thing well. This becomes an entrenched belief and a self-identifier. I am a mechanic. I am a sales person. I am a teacher. These are things that we do.

But what happens when we can’t do these things? Do we redefine ourselves? Do we identify in another way? Or do we simply stop?

I am seeing a lot of people who have been stopped in their tracks under quarantine and/or lockdown. They are crippled by an inability to do the thing that makes them feel like they exist. They have been prevented from earning an income and it’s breaking them and their spirits as well as their bank balances.

In this scenario it is not “I think, therefore I am” it has become, “I Ido, therefore I am”. And when you can’t do the thing you do, you’re stuck.

It’s time to become unstuck.

We need to start preparing for what we can do, not what we have done.

In your business you have skills and a team and a preconceived idea of what you do. But what can you do right now? If you have a businesses filled with a skillset that was used in a specific way, can that skillset be repurposed? Can your team be retooled to do something else in the short term? Can you earn new income in a different way using the same people in new and interesting ways? I bet you can. It’s possible that you can’t, sure, but have you tried a new way of doing?

In your personal life, have you always thought of yourself as an organised person? Can you generate income from that? Are interested in public speaking? Do you have a knack for drawing or design? Do you learn languages really quickly? How do you take what you do every day and turn it into something that you can do to make money in the short or long term?

This is the way I am trying to see the world now. An entire space and time to redefine the skills I have and turn them into something that I can do in the world going forward.