How do I pivot to a new creative project during a pandemic?
Welcome to our advice column where our editors offer thoughtful answers to your pressing inquiries. Head here to submit an anonymous question, and follow here for new Good Questions.✨
“How do you ‘pivot’ during a time like COVID-19 to *finally* work on that one thing that you’ve always wanted to pursue, try, etc?”
May I challenge the premise of the question? Or probe further to find the why behind the urge to do this now? Is it that you wish to seize the opportunity to be productive, or is it that you feel the awakening of creative impulse?
“New ventures require strong doses of both inspiration and discipline—I might argue that a worldwide time of uncertainty adds a profound degree of difficulty to both.”
New ventures, of any size or scale, require strong doses of both inspiration and discipline—I might argue that a worldwide time of uncertainty adds a profound degree of difficulty to both. Of course, if you do in fact feel inspired and possess the willpower it requires to begin something new, by all means, dig in. My assumption, however, is that you would not be asking the question if this were the case. (For most of us, it isn’t the case.)
If you have posed this question because you feel the compulsion to make something useful of yourself, to get ahead, or come out on top—I wish to take some pressure off of your weighted shoulders. I encourage you to adjust your expectations of what you hoped to accomplish in this time and resist the temptation to optimize your life. Your present work is simply to survive and to serve, to rest and restore, to grieve and live in gratitude, and to be kind to yourself. It is more than enough.
“Your present work is simply to survive and to serve, to rest and restore, and to be kind to yourself.”
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AmyAnn Cadwell is CEO & Co-Founder of The Good Trade and an angel investor in mission-driven companies.