What I learnt from Covid Crisis

 

Ever since Covid crisis unfolded, people have been writing about the ways in which it changed our world and its ways of working. Also, about the changes it did in the minds of people, its impacts on families, the elderly, children and married couples too. If I had to pick one key learning I had due to this crisis, then it is “awareness of our mortality”.

Covid reminded us that all that we thought about life was not "all". No matter how much science and technology progresses, it will keep getting defeated in the hands of certain natural or unnatural forces. There are scenarios which are beyond our comprehension. We cannot be sure about things anymore. We are vulnerable, and it is better if we are aware of that, so that we do not behave like immortals.

Being aware of this fact, I have been working on things which would make better sense. We cannot take things for granted. We cannot assume that we are in control of our life. Uncertainty is real. We have to go about life factoring it.

We also have to be clear on our priorities. There is no infinite time left to us to make patches and adjustments in order to keep going. We have to have a path on which we need to move. And that path we have to make after factoring it that we are not immortals and that things can go wrong anytime.

The Covid crisis and its uncertainties should not mean that we should abandon all long-term planning. It just means that we need to factor in the risks on the way. The crisis did not mean that our value system should change. It just means that we have to be watching ourselves better. We may not assume that we shall live till old age and we have plenty of time to get back on course of life. We need to be on the course from day-1 and we cannot afford tipping.

The way we think impacts our work life, our relationships, our finances, our health and every other aspect of our life. As Covid crisis has made us feel more vulnerable and it is a human trait, it is going to impact our course of life too. I hope it makes me more human, and hence a better human: better than I could be otherwise.

- Rahul Tiwary