Words that caught me: N is for 'New Beginnings'
After a 3-month COVID-imposed closure.
We don’t think I’m being too presumptive
To
assume that each of us is now contemplating a similar thing.
Here
are a few lessons about our re-opening
That
I think you might find to be of help:
It
starts long before the day itself:
Getting to 1st
June was a journey. It was first, an internal journey, then it became a
prospect, and finally, a project. We had to get over the initial fears first.
Then, as more facts emerged, we began to relax a little bit, before coming to
the realization that we have to learn to live with COVID-19 and the uncertainty
it brings. Having accepted this new reality, the rest was easy to do. So, spare
some time and do the internal journey first.
Ready
is a fallacy:
It’s reality. We are never
100% ready or prepared for anything. Often than not, we move forward because we
have a deadline and a degree of confidence (faith). We were open for business at
5am on 1st June 2020. But there was a lot more on our to-do list
than we cared to admit. But we had prepared enough to feel confident that we could
hack it. There will never be a perfect time or perfect conditions. But there is
magic in having a deadline and preparing adequately.
It’s
just another day in paradise:
There are those few times
when we look back and say the event we had been planning went well, or even
better than we had anticipated. But for most launches, weddings, beginnings
etc, it is just another day. Nothing really special except for the label we’ve
chosen to give it. Sometimes we mark the day in red and commemorate it in
anniversaries. That’s okay. It’s good to celebrate and build rituals. But it’s
just another day in paradise, nothing more or less.
We
often don’t get time to enjoy it much:
Ask any product manager,
groom or bride about how they enjoyed their product launch or wedding. We are
planning a special product for lovers and honeymooners, and one of the things
that surprised us most during our research, was to learn that most couples don’t
get a chance to enjoy the food and cake they’ve so elaborately laid out for
their guests! There are too many activities packed in one day, so much so that
the day itself becomes a blur. It’s like a movie on speed forward. You catch a
face here and a smile there, but the cascade never stops long enough for you to
enjoy it. So don’t worry if your new beginning doesn’t equate to the effort you
have put preparing for it. It’s not a math game.
It
always could’ve been better:
You may have heard it before that 'everybody has plan until they get punched in the mouth' (Mike Tyson). Plans rarely roll out with military
precision. There is always something that we forgot to think about, and
something that didn’t turn out as well as we anticipated. It pays to erect a
psychological buffer against getting perfect results and disappointment. But
for most of us, this is difficult to do because we are deeply invested in, and
identified with the process, and its outcome. Any variation in the plan hits us
hard. And we tend to take it personal. Don’t. Accept the messiness of taking
action. Some things will work out. Others won’t. Progress comes in drips, not
in torrents.
We
all wish that change was a simple, linear process,
With
one thing leading directly to the other,
All
of them adding up neatly into what we desire.
Fortunately
or unfortunately, it only comes in drips,
And
in messy and untidy zig zags.
But
here’s the nicest thing about it…
One
unassuming
day, when the skies are unremarkable,
We’ll
look up from ourselves and realize that change has happened,
And
what we called ‘new’ has finally become ‘normal’.
Postscript:
a few goading thoughts…
“The
first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay
where you are.” - J.P. Morgan
“Starting over is an acceptance of a past we
can't change, an unrelenting conviction that the future can be different, and
the stubborn wisdom to use the past to make the future what the past was not.”
- Craig D. Lounsbrough
“You
can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a
beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens
up to you.” - Barbara Shur
“There
is always a new beginning...Doors are unlimited, always open, one closes and in
that moment, the other opens.” - Vandana Agarwal
“Ruins,
for me, are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas. They
are symbols of a beginning.” - Anselm Kiefer
“Don't
look to the past with sorrow, you will never walk there again. Look to the now
and make it beautiful.” - Mimi Novic
“Sometimes
the hardest part isn't letting go but rather learning to start over.” - Nicole
Sobon
“Life
is perhaps after all simply this thing and then the next. We are all of us
improvising. We find a careful balance only to discover that gravity or stasis
or love or dismay or illness or some other force suddenly tows us in an
unexpected direction. We wake up to find that we have changed abruptly in a way
that is peculiar and inexplicable. We are constantly adjusting, making it up,
feeling our way forward, figuring out how to be and where to go next. We work
it out, how to be happy, but sooner or later comes a change-sometimes something
small, sometimes everything at once- and we have to start over again, feeling
our way back to a provisional state of contentment.” - Anne Giardini
“When
your world is completely flattened, you have no choice but to start over from
the ground up. It can take over a decade. Anyone that watched from afar would
call this a tragic catastrophe. I now know one of life’s greatest secrets;
destruction breeds growth.” - Kristin Michelle Elizabeth
“Remembering
where and why you fell and learning the lessons well is a good starting point
to start all over again with a better insight and a renewed fortitude and wit
to dare again for victory!” - Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
“The
future lies ahead, calling us up, offering us a new chance to make a new choice
every day, offering us the chance to go another way, to start over. The
possibilities are countless. All you have to do is just dare to take them.” - Zøe
Haslie
“Every
sunset is an opportunity to reset.” - Richie Norton
“Do
not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the
conditions perfect.” - Alan Cohen
“I
have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more
start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” - J.
B. Priestly
“Genuine
beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by
external opportunities.” - William Throsby Bridges
“If
you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” - Paulo Coelho
“In all beginnings dwells a
magic force / For guarding us and helping us to live / Serenely let us move to
distant places / And let no sentiments of home detain us.” - Hermann Hesse
“My
world is brighter / My view much wider / New beginning, first breath of air /
I'm so aware of new beginning / I'm thankful for the chance to start again /
I've turned the page, a change came with the wind / It's not the end, it's a
new beginning.” - Blue Miller
Comments