It almost seems unbelievable when you look back on our past six months. All these new expressions; social distancing, herd immunity, lockdown… It feels like we’ve entered another world.
So many people have been affected in so many different ways. How we work and how we socialise changed (potentially) forever.
At the beginning of lockdown I tried to carry on as normal with work. This proved almost impossible with my husband and two kids around the same table. My youngest clearly needed more than the odd question answered so I stopped working to concentrate on him. I “home-schooled” him for the remainder of the school year, as so many parents have done.
His school did a wonderful job of providing work and we set ourselves a timetable each morning. I still tried to keep on top of my work once we’d finished but often it was either too late in the day or I was exhausted after a day “teaching” him. His emotional needs were the most exhausting part to the day!
In quieter moments I would try to continue with my, ever growing, to-do list. Even harder when, three years into running my own business, I’m still learning every day.
I have never done sales and don’t have the confidence required to really go for it! However, I have used this time to try to learn more. I’ve made some terrible and (now) obvious mistakes in my approaches to people, particularly on LinkedIn. After connecting with one lady, she then wrote a post a day or two later about how awful it is to be approached in the way I had done so with her. Lesson learned.
My husband recently took the children away for a week and allowed me some time to catch up with myself; emotionally as well as with work. I now feel as though I am starting to get a little normality back. Albeit, summer holiday normality. I seem to spend more time playing cricket that I do at my laptop!
I’m a naturally anxious person and have found these last few months incredibly testing. I have doubted myself as a wife, parent and as a business owner.
However, there have been enough positive moments to keep me going. Workwise, despite all meetings and conferences being cancelled, I have still had as many sales during lockdown as I had in the whole of my last financial year! I’ve met and established a partnership with a mental health charity and produced a free book to help children understand Covid-19 which has been viewed over 57,500 times.
I have made some amazing connections and built on relationships that were already established so I want to say thank you to everyone who has made this possible.
I hope that through the madness you have all found positives too. If you are struggling, there is always someone there to talk to. If you need advise or extra help, look up Kaleidoscope Plus Group. They offer a range of services to help with mental wellbeing. Good luck and best wishes for the future.