The pandemic has challenged us with both prohibitions and permissions. And still, people and patterns are emerging into having shed old ways in which we’ve been stuck.
For example, I used to teach 30-40 sessions a year when I took a plane everywhere; last year I delivered more than 300 sessions using a video camera. Major airlines used to frustrate us with ticket change fees which have now all disappeared - and Lufthansa recently announced you can finally buy a whole row in coach rather than a first-class ticket to stretch out. My doctor happily schedules routine appointments by Zoom. Digital notarization for real estate finally arrived in the last few states that had insisted on scrolls and quills to the last minute.
Of course, there’s still so much opportunity to be explored. It would be wonderful if smartphones were automatically connected to automobiles without needing yet another outdated cord. It would be great if rental car companies would stop charging an $18 courtesy fee to use a toll transponder for a $5 toll. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the law were not regularly used to tell others what to do with their lives, but rather assumed we are just fine directing our own way? Imagine the next social media app wasn’t designed to monetize outrageous public behavior but rather nudge us towards little acts of kindness and neighborliness.
While it’s easy to focus today on what we can’t do anymore - in many cases only temporarily - ignite your imagination with what is finally changing after decades and generations of “We’ve always done it that way.” Then take a moment to wonder, “Can we do better? Don’t we deserve it to be right? Will the viral advertisers and rabble-rousers just take a day off?”
When I think of what we are still going through these days, I recall an old proverb that says, “Not everything that’s bad has come to hurt you.” I wouldn’t have thought it would take a pandemic for some of these things to eventually come to pass. And yet I’m not entirely ungrateful that they’re finally getting done.
Which excites the possibility of:
What’s next for me - and for YOU!
#AlwaysInspiring