How long will the Damocles Sword of the coronavirus pandemic hang over our heads? As the days drag on, will it threaten to upend us indefinitely? Even though we try to avoid thinking about the troubling possibilities, they keep creeping into our minds, creating more stress, clouding our ability to stay focused, and leaving us irritable, angry, less effective, and tired.

It’s not a pretty picture — not one we could possibly imagine ever facing. So, when we’re confused and uncertain about the future, what are we to do? Here are some thoughts about that bothersome question.

1. Don’t listen to yourself

Why does it always happen when we are trying to get to sleep at night? But that’s the way it is. What’s so upsetting is that the person who causes the anxiety and does the damage is the one who lives inside our head. We are never our own best friend in the middle of the night.

So, stop listening to yourself. It’s time for a personal fact-checker, but neither Alexa nor Siri qualify. This is a job for someone you trust. Ask, “This is what’s concerning me. Am I on track or off the rails?”

2. Look for new possibilities

The good news is that life is not a matter of choosing the right fake Zoom background to convince ourselves (and others) that we’re more than just OK. It amounts to more than that.

Recently, an editor sent me one of my sales articles. He had kept it until he found the right place for it. Recognizing that it had been around for about a year, he asked if I would look it over to see if it needed updating. Well, my first reaction was less than positive. But, swallowing my pride, I read it and was shocked at what I found. In a relatively short time, the world changed dramatically and the article needed updating to reflect what had transpired.

People are no different, so it may be time to ask yourself a tough question, “Am I dated?” Think about it. What can you do to “update” yourself? Sure, you may know your job “backwards and forwards,” but that doesn’t count anymore. Focus on figuring out how to revise your performance. How can you make what you do more relevant? What can you do to enhance your value? Think about the possibilities.

3. Get better acquainted with yourself

If you really want to get to know yourself as you really are, you might want to spend time in Wyoming. But be prepared, Wyomingites aren’t subtle. They don’t tip-toe around; they’re not afraid to tell it like it is, no matter who you are. Having lived there, I speak from experience. For example, I recall the memorable words of a motorcycle-riding English professor from the UW: “If you can’t write it, you don’t know it.” Got it!

Here is the point. If you want to get better acquainted with yourself, jot down life experiences from your early memories to what is happening now. Don’t just remember them, get them on paper. Write them down as they come to mind. Ideas never come all at once. If you really want to know yourself, start writing. You may like what you discover.

4. Be ready for the unexpected

How many times in the last six months have you heard someone say, perhaps wistfully, “I’ll sure be glad when life gets back to the way it was.” Even though we may not have said it out loud, most everyone has harbored the thought more than a few times. It’s just too much to let ourselves think that going back is not an option.

If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that we should learn to keep an eye out for surprises and the unexpected, or, as the slang would have it, they come from “out of left field.”

Even though we may not like to think that everything is up for grabs because of the pandemic, it is: the way we live, work, play, learn, shop, think, do business, and behave. It’s all changing and will surely continue to evolve. Keeping an eye out for the unpredictable will make living easier and more rewarding.

5. Change the picture of yourself

Add continuing uncertainty to the pervasive impact of COVID-19 and it’s more than enough to distort our picture of ourselves and crush our self-confidence. It’s too much to let ourselves think about what could possibly be coming next.

Perhaps not. How we happen to view ourselves is not a given or chiseled in stone, unless, we allow ourselves to look at it that way. In a wonderful essay, “Homo Sapiens: The Unfinished Animal,” physicist George Stanciu, Ph.D., writes, “Nature gives human beings no specific way of life — no fixed occupation, no fitting dress, no appropriate emotional profile. It’s as if nature grew tired when she fashioned Homo sapiens and left this one species unfinished.”

And that’s good news. In spite of everything, what we do with what we are given has not been written or handed to us. Our story is unfinished — and it’s in our hands.        

John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales strategy consultant and business writer. He is the creator of “Magnet Marketing,” and publishes a free monthly eBulletin, “No Nonsense Marketing & Sales Ideas.” Contact him at jgraham@grahamcomm.com or visit: johnrgraham.com

When I went to grade school in the 1970s, the curriculum was still based on “The 3 R’s” of Readin’, wRitin’ and ‘Rithmatic.” These cornerstone fundamentals of education were not my favorite and of the three, I gravitated the most to reading. Like so many others, I enjoyed the adventure of new places, people, and ideas unfolding before me page after page. That was much more attractive than figuring out multiplication tables. 

Today, I find reading an essential discovery tool for my work as a consultant, coach, and trainer. However, it’s the power of story that is the real gift of reading and the occasional movie or documentary — and speaking of documentaries, my wife and I recently watched the 2010’s “Wasteland” together. The documentary has been described on theater websites such as Moviefone as follows:

“Located just outside Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Gramacho, Brazil, is the world’s largest garbage landfill. Modern artist Vik Muniz works with the so-called catadores, the men and women who pick through the refuse, to create art out of recycled materials. Muniz selects six of the garbage pickers to pose as subjects in a series of photographs mimicking famous paintings. In his desire to assist the catadores and change their lives, Muniz finds himself changed as well.”

We learned that the class system in Brazil is significant. Muniz suggests that people in higher classes truly believe they are better than those in lower classes. The garbage pickers are considered one of the lowest classes in Brazilian society, with only prostitutes and thieves being lower. 

A small but significant detail in the film that struck me was that one of the most prized items the pickers would find in the garbage heaps was books. Occasionally they would find intact books among the garbage, and instead of selling them with the recyclables that paid their wages, they retained, cleaned, and dried these books to become part of the collection in their self-made library. 

The catadores valued these books and the ability to read. They taught one another to read, they read to one another, and they read independently. They read to learn. They read as a way to express some independence. They read to grow as people and to escape their very challenging realities. They read to virtually travel, to understand foreign perspectives, and to challenge their current ways of thinking. This defines the garbage pickers as high-class in my book — no pun intended.

Our clients often ask for a recommended reading list of leadership, organizational effectiveness, and personal-development books, and we are quick to answer with long lists of well-written books, white papers, and the occasional TED Talk or other video or documentary. I would add “Wasteland” to that list.

As leadership and executive coaches, we believe leaders are readers — and here is why:

Unlike the pickers of the Brazilian landfill, and despite most of our ample means and experience in traveling, reading provides exposure to new ways of thinking, cultures, and ideas like no other media can. In fact, what Mark Twain said about travel — “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime” — clearly also applies to reading.

Another great benefit of reading, especially for leaders, is that language and vocabulary are enhanced and improved. The spoken word, literacy, and the understanding of concepts through language and vocabulary are all exercised and improved through reading, equipping us to be more agile and effective communicators.

Consider the literacy model known as the ladder of abstraction. It’s a model to describe structure or a hierarchy of language. Simply explained, lower rungs on the ladder are more commonly understood while higher rungs may be more sophisticated or elite. Be thoughtful of the audience you wish to connect to and speak or write from their rung, not a higher one to seem more impressive or intelligent, effectively losing some of your connection. Also be mindful of not over-simplifying your language too. Match the rung and you will connect more and better.

We are fortunate in the U.S. compared to some people and cultures elsewhere in the world, where reading materials are highly censored and scrutinized to the point of being unavailable or illegal. Exercise that freedom by reading diverse and even controversial materials. Challenge your own biases by reading materials you would otherwise judge negatively, and you will develop greater self-awareness as an individual and as a leader of others.

Leaders are influencers. The more tools and approaches we have to authentically utilize make us, as leaders, potentially more influential to larger and more diverse populations. Ultimately, reading is especially important for leaders because leaders are people who have a desire to influence others to purposeful action. Reading increases our capacity and ability to influence more effectively. Reading will only enhance every leader’s ability!

—A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. — Mark Twain

Bill Berthel is a partner with Emergent, L.L.C., a provider of executive coaching and leadership training, based in Syracuse. Contact him at Bill@GetEmergent.com