How often have we all wished for the world to stop turning so we could get a few more things done, complete that school assignment, finish that presentation, get the house sorted, just enjoy some me time. Well it did.

Did we make the most of it? Has it forced us to re-assess what is important? Did we get all of those things done we said we wanted to or were they actually just ideals that we presented to the world because we felt we should do them.

For me, I thought during lockdown I would lose weight, get fitter, become a pro at home schooling and learn a new skill. That might have all been a bit ambitious but that is what I am like. In reality I now have a new found respect for teachers and will be buying my children’s teachers a very large bottle of gin when they go back to school, I have done more exercise than normal and I am taking an online course. I haven’t lost weight, in fact it has gone the other way, but I am enjoying lots of home cooked meals with my family every day so there are benefits.

This period will give us all time to re-assess what is important in life to us as individuals and to us as couples, families or friends. There will be positives to come out of this situation and as Charles Swindell said “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it”. This will resonate with all of us and although we are all going to have moments during this period where we don’t react as well as we would like to, we can still overall be proud of how we react in the long run. There are some who have truly stepped up during this period and have gained the whole nations admiration. Everyone from council workers, to delivery drivers, to teachers, to shop staff, to Captain Tom Moore and of course to our wonderful NHS. Let’s not lose the respect we have for all those keyworkers who have kept the country moving.

As the Queen said and I am paraphrasing (if you are even allowed to do that with the Queen!), we want to be able to look back at this period and be proud of the part we played in it, whatever that may be. That sentence really resonated with me and actually if there is one thing I will take out of all of this it is just that I should be able to look back on any period of my life and be proud of how I reacted and be thankful for what I achieved. 

Business as we know it will change – whether that is how we communicate with customers, how we view our stability, the necessity to build strong meaningful relationships with suppliers and partners, how much we actually need to save for that rainy day, how we work day to day and the trust we put in our teams to deliver. The importance of the work-life balance will be highlighted now more than ever and we will find employees will have different requirements when we all get back together, and that is ok. We have learned to trust our team and to know they will get the job done and for many it doesn’t really matter if that is strictly between the hours of 9 to 5. 

We may not have got fitter, or got the house painted or sorted the garden or learned how to juggle but let’s not lose the momentum we have built over this period. We can all come out of this as better individuals, better teams, better partners, better parents and better friends.