As we enter a period of renewal and change, Your Clear Next Step is committed to helping our customers make their businesses and workdays even better. We will be here to walk beside you, to listen, to connect, and to aid in your search for clarity. In doing so, we are offering a free, daily Zoom call, called Daily Connections, at 1:15pm (CDT) every weekday from 3/19/2020-5/1/2020.
These calls are a chance for us to share tips and discussion about relevant topics (working remotely, maintaining consistency in uncertain times, building relationships across geography, staying motivated, staying connected, etc) and network with each other to provide help and support during this time of change.
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us today! The next call will be Wednesday, April 15th at 1:15pm (CDT). Click here to join.
On today's call...
One theme I keep hearing is ‘everyone wants something from me’. It’s odd – we’re in a moment of isolation, but we feel picked on, put upon, overly demanded of.
- Parent might say – they need, lunch, too? or I work all day and I’m still supposed to clean up after the messes they made during the day?
- Family tech expert might say – I get enough of this at work, why can’t they just leave me alone and solve their own tech challenges.
- Leader might say – how can they possibly need to know more? I have no more to tell them!
- Employee might say – I’m doing the best I can, why do they need more info, faster answers, new results?
- Church member of charitable giving association member might say – seriously? More money, more canned goods? More volunteer work? I can barely take care of my own family!
- Teacher might say – I’m doing the best I can for these kids and now administration or parents are asking me to do what?
So what can we do about it? Let me offer 5 simple steps.
- Look at the person or organization asking you for something. Just stop what you’re doing, and look. Reflect. Who are they, what do they really mean to you? Get out of the moment you were in, and be in this moment now.
- Re-position your thinking to one of gratitude. Try these questions:
- What am I grateful for when it comes to this person or this organization?
- Get out of your own way. Try this prompt:
- If time and money were not an object, what would I want to do with my skills and abilities for this person or this organization?
- Get back in this current moment. Try this line of thinking:
- I can’t do everything, and really, no one is asking me to. What’s realistic in this current situation? What’s a reasonable, realistic use of my time and my resources that I can do right now.
- Consider fishing lessons. Have you created a dependency that’s not necessary? Can you teach someone to fish, or set up recurring transactions, or put alarms/timers/schedules in place to protect your time and theirs?
Here were some ideas and questions shared by the group:
- Be grateful that you have someone that is reaching out to you. I feel lost right now because when I offer for help people are hesitant to take me up on it because I'm at a higher risk.
- We’ve been trying to do takeout from local businesses when we can to help support them. Our local bookstore is also putting together bags with books and puzzles and toys to pass out to the local elementary school students. We also have a local small business that makes candles. 5$ of each of those candles gets donated to a local food market that then donates to the food pantry. It's been awesome to live in a community where there are a lot of people stepping forward.
- In our local community there is a group doing a PPE drive.
- How can we support our teachers right now?
- My daughter is having my grandson right letters to his teacher to let them know what they mean to them.
- My teacher friends seem to really be missing the human connection they used to get so much of. If you have any teacher friends, check in with them to be sure they are doing okay and help make up for their lack of human connection.
