One of the most profound effects of a prolonged period of lockdown has been, for many of us, a reassessment of meaning and lifestyle: Why do I do this? Why do we do it this way?
For example, several people have said to me that upon their return to “normal” work, they don’t want to commute so much. Having learned the freedom, both time freedom and financial freedom, of remote working, and the improved productivity it can afford, they no longer see the need.
Good.
This example is evidence, though, of something even more fundamental: that our work is often needlessly enslaving. We hadn’t questioned it, but now we do. Why did we allow ourselves to work that way?
We didn’t expect this lockdown to invite us to ask ourselves and each other such deep questions. It’s another unintended consequence.
Maybe this is a time to return to working lifestyles that are more effective and free, rather than conforming to old conventions of being on hamster wheels that no one has challenged before.
What are you going to do? What you going to stop doing?
Photo by Ricky Kharawala on Unsplash