What now? Regaining our stride for post-COVID-19 world

Here are some personal musings on the past year and how its lasting lessons may in fact make us all stronger at work and in the most important venue of all, our lives. After all, as Einstein once said, “Failure and deprivation are the best educators and purifiers.” Although COVID-19 is far from over and social unrest over the presidential election has spilled into 2021 and shaken our democracy, the light at the end of the tunnel seems near. So, as we cautiously step away from the edge of the abyss, what have we learned from the chaos, deprivation, and losses of the past year? Conversely, what things have we discovered—perhaps to our surprise—that hindered us in the past and we can leave behind?

Screeching to a halt

As 2020 began, we were of course quite unaware of the approaching storm. Not yet familiar with the term “social distancing,” I celebrated my 60th birthday in November 2019 in that most “social” of cities, Las Vegas, Nevada. In a vain attempt to reclaim my lost youth, I resolved to run the Rock-N-Roll Half Marathon with thousands of others in Sin City. I ran with abandon (sort of, for a 60-year-old) down the brightly lit Vegas Strip and celebrated the mass of humanity that was the city.

Unfortunately, my 61st year didn’t go exactly according to plan. By mid-March, our law firm and employer clients were in the full throes of coping with COVID-19, and my entire work vocabulary had changed. I can now tell you everything you need to know about “hand hygiene,” “N95 masks,” or “virtual meetings.”