Cook Looks: The current situation is helping a lot of us focus on what makes us tick.

This month Jo Cook takes a look at Christine Locher’s new book to examine her own values.

We might be ‘in this together’ with regards the Coronavirus pandemic, but certainly each of us has our own journey. For some it’s meant time in the garden and with the kids, for others a boom in work, yet others have lost businesses and loved ones and some just aren’t safe in their homes or relationships.

The current situation means there’s also a focus on how the world’s food manufacturing businesses should be operating, the effect of various elements of lockdown on the environment, and perhaps what that time has meant for some of us to be able to contemplate life and issues more deeply. If nothing else, we’ve all had to somehow navigate our mental and emotional health these last few months.

Leadership and change coach Christine Locher tweeted about how values help us to make sense of our lives, and wanting to find out more I picked up her Kindle book ‘Values-based – career and life changes that make sense’.

Where we can, we should relish this time to look at our lives and how we want to live them.

It struck me immediately how valuable this work is for all of us at this time of change and struggle in our world. Christine talks in the book about how changes are “going to be real. Things will change. You might not ‘get your old life back’. And there are likely going to be things you won’t enjoy about that change.” That resonated with me about how 2020 is turning out!

For many of us this time in our life is going to be the hardest most awful thing we’ve ever had to deal with, and it’s times like this when we need something to anchor us and help us see our own way through. For others of us this time of change has brought about new insights into how we want to live and work in the future.

About change, Christine writes: “Once the reshuffling slows down a bit and somewhat stabilizes in a new(ish) form, you might find you like it better and that the trade-offs were worth it… Or that you don’t miss your former capitalist trappings one bit. Or some mix in between.”

 

Where we can, we should relish this time to look at our lives and how we want to live them. Christine’s book is another step in my journey of looking at my values, my vision for my life and my work, and it helps me make decisions that are difficult.

It’s helped me steer my business through the initial few months of the Coronavirus pandemic, helping and supporting people in their moments of crisis to still offer learning to people that need it and, quite frankly, keep their businesses afloat. It’s helped me to (eventually) pick myself up when I’ve been down and assist others to do the same.

I’ll let Christine have the last, eloquent words about working on our values: “Don’t underestimate the amount of reach and radiance a person has with clear values, who stands up for them and for others when they get violated… You will reach and inspire people even though you might never hear about it. Trust that.”

 

About the author

Jo Cook co-hosts the TJ monthly podcast and is a webinar and virtual classroom specialist. Find out more at www.lightbulbmoment.online

 

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