Planning Ahead

Several months ago I read a series of books about Franklin D. Roosevelt in his role as leader during World War II. The author, Nigel Hamilton, tells a compelling story (over three volumes!) of FDR’s skill as a leader and his remarkable courage in the face of a world nearly consumed with violence and aggression. One of the main surprises of the book for me was how much thought FDR gave throughout the war to the shape of the world after the war. Even in the darkest days of the early forties when the final outcome of the war was anything but certain, FDR and others were already thinking and planning about what would come after.

This possibility to imagine the future is one of the unique gifts and challenges of being human. We can all torment ourselves with fearful scenarios but we can also create visions of life that can energize us to accomplish great things. FDR consistently spoke of what the war was for—thus reminding people of the importance of their collective effort and sacrifices. Having a vision of the future is part of what can bring us together and give meaning to our actions in the present. Imagining and planning a future scenario, however abstract, also help us make choices about what we do and don’t do right now.

Most of us are still under lockdown and plans of re-opening in the US are just beginning to emerge. Very few timelines have been offered and the ones that have seem wildly unreliable. The truth is, we don’t know when we’ll begin to go back to ‘normal’ and we don’t even know what ‘normal’ will look like when we do. So much is uncertain. Even when the social distancing rules are relaxed, will businesses be able to open? Will enough people go back to support the ones that do open? Will the jobs that have vanished reappear? And are we talking three months? Six months? Two years? So much is unknown.

But even within this uncertainty, we have the capacity to begin dreaming about the future a personal level. While this pandemic has brought horrific suffering and loss to so many, it has also shaken us out of some of the unavoidable mindless forward momentum of our lives. Many of us have had time at home, seemingly too much time at home, to consider some things that we took for granted.

Perhaps it is time to consider what we have learned during this time about ourselves and our lives. What is it about our current personal reality that we might want to keep as we transition, at some point, back to more physical connection and responsibility? And are there things we used to do and ways we used to be that we would rather not do and be when things resume?

These are questions to hold and ponder. While the pace full re-engagement with each other seems glacial now, it will come sooner than we suspect. ‘Normal’ will come back, both through the change our physical routines and through our natural human adjustments to the conditions in which we find ourselves. Newness and disruption are inevitably subsumed into just the way things are.

But right now, in the middle of it all and without knowing what exactly will happen, what is the vision for your future that calls to you? As you re-engage, how do you want to be? Are there parts of your life that you would just as soon not re-enter? Are there qualities or insights that are present now that you want to make sure to bring with you?

Personal Practice: Take some time to reflect over these past two months. What has become clearer to you about your life? What are you enjoying now that you might not have noticed or had time for before? What have you stopped doing that you’re happy about?

Now consider what it might look like to re-engage with others AND bring some of these new learnings, new ways of being along too.

Final question: what can you do today to practice turning toward these things that are most important to you? It’s actually our behavior today that has the biggest impact on the future we move into.