The most common expression I see these days on my Zoom calls is resignation. That’s different from what we saw earlier in the pandemic.
During lockdown, there was shock and bewilderment. Most of us were simply holding our breath, making it through something we couldn’t have imagined even a few weeks before.
Then there was The Grind. For months after lockdown, we lived the Groundhog Day of Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting, waiting for it to be over. Because we assumed at some level that life would eventually get back to normal. Normal was just taking so, so long to reappear.
Almost two years in, I mostly see resignation on people’s faces. This resignation isn’t necessarily the “I quit” variety. It’s an acceptance. That things are not normal. That they may not get back to that normal soon – or ever.
There’s freedom in acceptance. You can let go of expectations of yourself, others, and the world around you that they will be a certain way. You can seek and embrace the good of the situation you’re in, no matter how uncomfortable. You can shed patterns and beliefs that honestly weren’t working that well before anyway.
Why not embrace acceptance today? Why not look around your life and work and say, “OK, this is how it is. What’s the gift in this?”
Resignation might lead to freedom. It’s that moment of realization that life as it is just won’t work.
