A new “normal”: What you don’t want to but need to hear

The current series of events and what will continue to unfold over the next few months will undoubtedly change our lives. The worst part it is that it’s not a once in a lifetime event but it’s a reminder of how fragile modern civilization is as much as we like to think otherwise.

In life I have always tried to balance a positive outlook with a pragmatic view. The first one ensures you can live a “happy life”. The second one keeps you in check and makes sure you are prepared for bad circumstances you don’t expect.

I have no words to describe the pain some people around the world are facing and the heroic efforts healthcare workers, first responders, retail clerks, delivery personnel and other critical positions in our labor force are enduring.

My fear about this situation is the potential for a mental health epidemic I’m already starting to witness. Technology is keeping us together more than ever but our outlook on how the events in the coming days and months will play-out will make the different between staying sane and not doing so.

I’m most concerned about people that hope and are waiting for things to “go back to normal”. The hard reality most people don’t realize is that this is the new normal.

No healthcare system is ready or will be ready for something like this. We won’t flip the page and the damage, deaths, economic disruption will go as fast as it came. Our behavior will permanently change.

There are a lot of positive things we have learned from this process:

• Humans are resilient and in times of need we always come together and make joint progress
• Many people are coming to terms with the fact we have less control for some aspects of our lives than we think we have
• Relationships have strengthened across friends, family and even strangers
• We have come to terms with using technology to truly unlock productivity and new possibilities

I’m not writing this to make you less hopeful of a resolution. I’m also not writing this to make you only look at the worst case scenario. I’m to say that this will take longer than we expected and how fast we recover will vary significantly on our state of mind and how fast we can assimilate this “new normal”.