Hey friends — With so many different perspectives around this pandemic, I wanted to share my two cents in all of this.
While it has been tough to see so many businesses get disrupted, layoffs happening, recession approaching and sickness counts growing, I do think this pandemic is a massive CALL for positive disruption too. 1) It’s a call for disruption in the way we think about ourselves in the context of others and the world, 2) it’s a call for disruption in the way things currently operate in business and government and 3) it’s a call for disruption within ourselves.
1) DISRUPTION IN THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT OURSELVES IN THE CONTEXT OF OTHERS AND THE WORLD:
I have finally started hearing first hand stories from friends and friends of friends who got the virus. It’s hitting close to home now and has gotten very real.
The disruption that we are being called on is to come together as one world tribe, put our differences, competing agendas and self-interest aside and beat this TOGETHER. If one country, or one city or one PERSON doesn’t opt into the physical distancing for a few weeks, then ONE of us could be the catalyst for the greatest depression this world have ever seen where billions of people could suffer and millions could die unnecessarily. It only takes ONE person to infect others and it’s an exponential explosion (as we saw in China where Covid-19 erupted just a few months ago and is now all over the world, or as it happened with SARS, MERS, Black Death, or the Spanish flu which killed 50 million alone). We are being called on for the first time in a really long time (aside from VOTING — and pls pls register to vote!) as INDIVIDUALS to do our part in this and not take this lightly and not ignore it by doing things like gathering with friends because “you feel fine” — there is a selfish “me-me-me-what’s-convenient-for-me” element to society today that will hopefully get peer-pressured to change from this pandemic as we are all forced to take care of each other for real, as our lives and livelihoods depend on it…I see this as a POSITIVE disruption! So let’s all together practice physical distancing for a while and put positive peer pressure on those we know to do the same so we can come back together as soon as possible.
Also, moving forward, I hope that we will practice better hygiene and become extra considerate of others about that — ie. After all this, if we feel slightly under the weather or still have coughs or runny noses, I hope we practice JOMO (Joy of missing out) and choose to listen to our bodies and cancel or postpone plans, or at least wear masks if flying or traveling with a cough or runny nose. Someone is bound to disrupt the mask game where they will become cool and designer to wear and become synonymous with “I’m considerate and mysterious underneath” 🙂
2) DISRUPTION IN THE WAY BUSINESSES AND GOVERNMENT CURRENTLY OPERATE:
This pandemic is a call for disruption in business — a complete shakeup of all major industries — and a lot of old school thinking will be replaced with fresh, innovative and creative ideas that run business in a whole new way. There will be massive change in the fields of education, live entertainment, medicine, travel, as well as the business of startups, voting, banking, all forms of shopping etc etc. People will be forced to look at their daily habits (like using toilet paper) and switch to more environmentally friendly, conscious products, and choose things that last longer instead of single use products (like @hellotushy). People will start shopping locally as global supply chains become challenging during times like these. These are all good disruptions! A great example of this is one of my dearest friends’ family restaurant @EatNakedFarmer. Naked Farmer is a locally-sourced farm-to-fork restaurant that was meant to open its doors this week, but instead they pivoted their entire business model to deliver CSA-style boxes of fresh produce straight from the farm to people’s doors at a time when our communities need access to real food most.
The companies that are useful, conscious and agile will be just fine — that is not a bad disruption either!
As another example, I am so so proud of team @dybrkr for their agility and adapting quickly while their early morning dance parties in 27 cities around the world were halted. They held their first global LIVE dance party online yesterday and sold 3000 tickets to a tearful and grateful community — it was incredible to watch and be a part of (their next one is in two weeks btw — check out @dybrkr for details!) Their company and experience are essential in my opinion to keeping people happy and connected, moving their bodies and seeing the world through a lens of beauty and mischief.
Moreover, businesses like these will stay afloat because their community will make sure that it keeps going, which is also a testament to the strength of the business. It’s even a great thing for the businesses that don’t make it because they will be forced to level up and rethink the way they do business altogether and focus on the things that are essential for humans and the planet. Change is always clunky, hard, painful, resentful, frustrating in the beginning but magic and the freedom of a new, even more thoughtful and conscious path is always around the corner. I am so excited to see the New Guard coming up.
3) DISRUPTION WITHIN OURSELVES:
I think the call for disruption within ourselves is the most important thing to focus on while we are quarantined at home. There is no better time than now to take a good look at ourselves and ask ourselves the big questions of life, rather than distracting ourselves on social media or Netflix for hours on end. This is the time to really do the deeper work and read the books that help shake things up in your lives (check out Come Home To Yourself by @sadhviji, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay, BELONG by @love.radha and of course Disrupt-Her (http://disrupther.co) to disrupt your life in the most powerful way possible, now more than ever), ask your parents questions about their lives so you can better understand why you think the way you do and change the things you don’t like, write down the things that inspire you and figure out what your dharma (purpose) is while here on earth for a short while…
John Lennon and Yoko said it best “The war is over if you want it” meaning it’s up to us on the inside to find peace within ourselves in order to stop fighting externally. Plus, all of the fear and worry is an illusion of the past and an assumption of the future anyway and we can choose to disrupt it all. It’s time to excavate ourselves now, so that we can come out of this wild experience more grounded than ever.
Stay happy and safe out there and remember how miraculous it is to be alive. I hope that as soon as this pandemic is handled, you’ll be so excited to connect with people in person and not lose the desire for physical contact. We were born to connect and have human touch. May we hug (consensually) and break bread together soon. 🙂
Love to all,
Miki