Resilience & Clarity
Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and toughness.
Clarity: the quality of being understood and logical.
I have had the opportunity to meet up with so many friends (who happen to be co-workers and truly are my family) for coffee and lunch over the past few weeks. The common theme between all of them- resilience. I shouldn’t be surprised how truly resilient they all are, as we work in a 24/7 and 365 day industry. It’s an industry that’s not meant for everyone that is the definition of flexibility and passion. We eat holiday dinners in the cafeteria, we work weekends and miss friends weddings, we work nights and miss kids betimes, and do things like buy slim jims at a gas station at 11:00pm (because a client loves them and needs them prior to that keynote) and we do it all for the loyalty and love of our profession.
Hospitality was brought to it’s knees starting this March of 2020 and although some cities, states, and industries are seeing some recovery the hospitality field is not seeing that quite yet. Many hotels are still closed, events are at a complete halt, and hotels that are open are operating on a limited staff. This leaves millions of hospitality professionals on furlough or laid off. It’s a scary time for hospitality and what amazes me is that no one is broken. Everyone has been in good spirits and the one message I get from all of them is they all have clarity! They know they love their career and industry and they are going back as soon as they get that call! That is true passion. They are using this time wisely and better yet trying to enjoy it.
Some Tips that have been shared with me:
Keep a routine. Get up during the week at a specific time - like 7:30am. Sleep in later than you would normally get up for work but also not too much so you don’t have to re-train yourself to go back to work. Same for going to bed, keep to a decent schedule at night. Maybe staying up just a bit later than when you are heading to the office.
Use this time to see friends and those you loved. Maybe you never have time to visit your grandparents, well now you do! Connect with old friends for coffee. Plus this is a great way to network and keep up with connections!
Feel your emotions. Nothing good ever happens from holding in your emotions. So if you are having a sad day where you are worried, have that day with the commitment tomorrow is a new day and you will start fresh.
Do something you have always wanted to do- you have the time to learn a new skill! This has been fun to hear from friends what they are doing- cooking and trying recipes, kayaking, learning to swim, sewing, writing, the list goes on.
Stay Sharp! Check out EdX. You can take online classes for free from Cornell, Harvard, and universities all around the world.
Exercise! Walk around the neighborhood, try a new workout online, swim, just keep moving. One thing about working the event side of hospitality is you get your steps in. You are on your feet a lot so keep that up.
Find your Clarity! Maybe it will just come to you. Or maybe it’s something you need to think about and now is the time to really dive into what drives you and what your career looks like moving forward. Making it’s making lists of what you love and what you don’t love with your career and maybe it’s pursuing something new. Speak to someone in that field and understand it.
Try to find some enjoyment in this time. We work so hard and give so much to our careers and now we have this time to give to ourselves. Truly believe and know this situation is temporary.