When COVID touched-down earlier this year, we were all thrown for a loop. Some of us lost jobs. Some faced a new reality of juggling full-time remote work with full-time child care. Our essential workers could not not work. They heroically showed up every day in the face of risk and danger to themselves and their families.
My personal story is that I had just resigned from my full-time job at the very beginning of March 2020. My goal was to ramp-up this business, Great Day @ Work. I imagined bringng music to people at work and in academia. I imagined hosting Focus Sessions in co-working spaces and offices and cafes and industry conferences. The universe, though, had it's own ideas about how I was to start my new life and business. 😄
Without being able to provide in-person services, and without really being able to do much of anything, I started hosting focus sessions in Zoom every morning. My goals were pretty straight forward:
- Do something... anything!!
- Make the best of the situation.
- Create a routine for myself... other than watching Andrew Cuomo every morning on TV. That's something that a lot of us New Yorkers did in the early days of the pandemic.
- Create the business that I imagined.
- Play music for people with the tools at my disposal.
Fast-forward 6 months. The pandemic is still a thing. In-person events are still not-a-thing. Many of us are still trying to figure out how to work from home while simultaneously managing our homes, families and mental health.
...
Our daily Focus Sessions in Zoom are going strong. Our core group is supportive and dependable and talented and fun.
Here's my big take-away from the past 6 months of hosting Focus Sessions...
The real powers of our daily Focus Sessions are: The power of the group -- our companionship and accountability to one another. We are listening to and supporting each other through a challenging time. The power of habit and routine. We have created a daily ritual focused on productivity (hopefully 😂) and also on respecting our humanity. The power of commandeering our time. 1 We are advocating for ourselves by making deliberate decisions about how we spend our time. The power of self observation and introspection. We are compassionately noticing and validating how we feel - physically, mentally and emotionally. These acts of observation and introspection are catalysts for our personal growth.
Thank you Stacey, Steph, Erik, Jason, Olivia, Ethan, Nancy, Cori, Michael, Maria and everyone else who has regularly added value to our focus sessions... past, present and future.
Banner Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash
