To create hope, to have hope, to give hope, why is hope so important to human beings?
This past week I was privilege enough to hear Sir John Kirwan (JK) from Mentemia speak three times. Each time to a different group or in a slightly different format, however all virtually. One thing that has stayed with me all week was when we were talking about the fact that the NZ Government has said, all going well, Auckland will come out of Alert Level 4 (full lockdown, only time you leave your house is to get food or exercise) on Wed 22nd Sept 2021. JK said that statement had given people hope, hope that Auckland, the gateway to NZ, will finally get some freedom and most businesses will be able to open again and get back to what we do best, giving our people are purpose and delivering to our customers. For the previous few weeks, there was some hope that we would get some relief and then it was taken away with no end in sight.
March/April 2020 NZ went into Alert Level 4 for about 6 weeks, this was when COVID-19 hit our shore and impacted our communities. This time around, all of NZ had a couple of weeks of full "lockdown" however the rest of the country outside of Auckland moved pretty quickly between Alert Level 3 and then into a new Alert Level 2 Delta. If we get to Alert Level 3 on Wed then we would have been in full "lockdown" for 5 weeks (shorter than last year). Why have more people found this time round so much harder, especially when we are dealing with the more aggressive Delta variant?
The communication strategy that the NZ Government has in place is pretty good, we have daily briefings at 1pm or if there are decision being made by Cabinet then it is at 4 pm. Somehow this time round these updates have not been as important or maybe they have slowly sucked any hope that was there slowly away. I wrote last week about the fact that I had quite a hard week where everything seemed too hard and pretty much everything was triggering me so I was slowly withdrawing from my family (home and work) and isolating myself. This week was much better, on Monday I woke up when the alarm actually went off the first time, put on my workout gear, did some emails and then tried out the X-trainer (first time since I had broken my ankle at Hockey nearly 2 months ago). I survived the X-trainer and felt really invigorated, got showered and put on a collared shirt to feel more at work, got through my day with not too much issues and then went for a walk with my son. The day was topped off with the 4 pm update which said that Cabinet, in principle, had agreed that Auckland would come out of "lockdown" on Wed 22nd.
That announcement topped off my day however I didn't fully understand what it had done until that session with JK and highlighting that it had provided hope to people, had provided hope to me. The rest of week was much better than the previous week, got into a good routine of giving me purpose each day and dressing for work and then getting dress for home time. There was still one day that was a bit of a bummer however I think that had more to do with me and the fact that I was getting triggered by stuff that I have no control over and was trying to still find that control. With my bad day, it was funny how quickly my mind and soul started to feel unsure about the world again and started to put doubt in my mind about what I was trying to do in my work space and also career. I think doubt is the evil twin of hope, the yen and yang of today's COVID world. With all the interactions we have on social media with people from all over the world and the news that gets published, it is really easy for doubt to have a bigger space and impact on us than hope. Hope takes conscious effort, it is something that you end up having to fight to maintain in a world and culture where doubt and negativity is our default. This is why people try their best to fit in rather than stand out. If you stand out you are move likely to receive more negative feedback from our glorious keyboard warriors than you are from people who think you are awesome or you did an awesome thing.
It is time for us as humans to fight our natural defaults, break the mould, be who we are meant to be or give ourselves the opportunity to be whole. Let our shadows fall behind us.
"E huri to aroaro ki te ra tukuna to ataarangi ki muri i a koe"
"Turn and face the sun and let your shadow fall behind you"
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