Will You Come Out Stronger or Weaker After the Pandemic?

That’s an interesting question, “Will You Come Out Stronger or Weaker After the Pandemic?” And one that I’d love to hear your answer to. My friend, Sharon Horne-Ellstrom is hosting a challenge to make sure that participants come out stronger after the pandemic. Many of you know that I hosted the Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge. By the way you’re welcome to join the challenge.

When the reading challenge officially ended, I decided to continue. My hope is that I can read 100 books in 100 days because I want a good pool of ideas to work with. This is something I’m doing for myself and I didn’t invite anyone for the ride. Will I complete the challenge? I hope so. How am I doing? Although I haven’t counted the number of books I’ve read so far, if I add in the fiction books I’m reading, I would think I’m ahead.

The Book of Betrayals: Dan Kotler: Books Four Through SixThe Book of Lost Things: Dan Kotler: Books One Through Three

I downloaded a free copy of The Coelho Medallion: A Dan Kotler Archaeological Thriller by Kevin Tumlinson. I’ve read several archaeological thrillers before and was game. I liked the book and read a few in the series. They reminded me once again, how much fiction books can teach us. This is not a book review or summary, but observations I made that could help anyone to get through the pandemic much stronger.

Have you read?

6 Books to Read to Benefit Your Career During and Beyond Isolation

Because of the pandemic, you face certain constraints. Constraints are not necessarily bad because they limit options and force you to be creative. Your business may have closed temporarily or permanently. That's a tough situation to be in because it's your livelihood. Things may look bleak, but remember that with change comes an opportunity. Below are sentences and phrases I pulled from four of the Dan Kotler archaeological thrillers. Use them as a springboard to come up with ideas for your unique situation.

Learn How to Come Out Stronger or Weaker After the Pandemic: Are you game?

1. Even when it seems like you have nothing, you have more resources around you than you could ever imagine.
2. Figure out your options.
3. Use what you have on hand to get where you need to be. This reminds me of MacGyver.
4. Resources are only as limited as your imagination.
5. Figure out what you know. Determine what resources you readily have access to. You already know what you need to do. Now you have to figure out how to do it with what you have.
6. Take a step back. Stop looking at the problem. Start looking at everything around the problem. You have everything you need right in front of you.
7. Look far and wide for ideas.
8. Cross-pollinate ideas from different areas.
9. Change the landscape.
10. Rely on wits and resourcefulness.
11. When in doubt assume success.
12. You have power.
13. Whoever you were before the crisis is gone. Who you will become is up to you.

Pick two to three of the above statements and have some fun with them. Doing the exercise will help you to answer the question “Will You Come Out Stronger or Weaker After the Pandemic?” What problems are you grappling with as a result of the pandemic? If you re-frame the way you looked at the problems what would happen? What did you come up with when you played with items on the list above?

How to Come Out Stronger After the Pandemic

Coming out stronger after the pandemic is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot. Will You Come Out Stronger or Weaker After the Pandemic? I think it's entirely up to you. One of things I think is needed is a pool of ideas to apply. When you need ideas, where do you go? I have a few go-to places – the primary places being books. If you want to learn how to get ideas, here are some summaries of books I created. Although I recommend that you read books for yourself, as a complement, you can subscribe to book summaries as a filter to determine, which books to invest time in reading.

Have you read?

Summary: The MacGyver Secret by Lee David Zlotoff

Book Bite: The MacGyver Secret is a 3-step process to solve any problem you may have. You learn how to tap into your Inner Mac to find the best solution to your problem – you rely on yourself. Lee David Zlotoff, the creator of MacGyver, published The MacGyver Secret: Connect to Your Inner MacGyver & Solve Anything in late 2016. The premise of the book is that each of us has a MacGyver within us, therefore, we can come up with a solution to any tough problem. That means you can develop an unconventional solution to any problem you face.

Summary: Technique for Producing Ideas

Book Bite: Although A Technique for Producing Ideas outlines a creative process to teach you how to generate ideas, the method is good for learning creativity, problem solving and decision making. One book teaches three of the key skills needed for future jobs. The book outlines five steps to producing ideas.

Is there a formula to generate ideas when you need them? And can anyone generate ideas on demand, so to speak? A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young presents a formula that describes the creative process. An advertising executive, the author posed the question, “Is an idea the final result of a long series of unseen idea-building processes which go on beneath the surface of the conscious mind?” This book is the result of answering the question.

Summary: How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster

 The MacGyver Secret A Technique for Producing Ideas How to Get Ideas How to Get to Great Ideas

Book Bite: How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster builds on the work of James Webb Young’s A Technique for Producing Ideas. It is a 5-step process for producing ideas. Jack Foster points out that the creativity model for producing ideas leaves out something critical, and that is preparing your mind to produce ideas. He emphasizes that if you do not prepare your mind, you will never get the ideas you can get. In the book the author spends a considerable amount of time explaining how the reader can prepare her mind.

It’s important to have different perspectives on books. If you’re not a reader, you can find a synopsis of many books from Readitforme that you can listen to. Click the link to join. This is a great way to learn the latest thinking on many topics.

Click the link to the three book summaries and read them. And if you decide to sign-up for readitfor.me, I want you to read or listen to a few summaries. Make note of what you think are big ideas. Create a simple table and write down your big ideas, a book to a column. Start playing around to see if you can combine the ideas into natural groupings. What did you come up with?

Do the same exercise when you read books and take your own notes. When you start combining ideas from different books, you’re innovating. And you’re likely to see what others might have missed when they read the same books.

How Avil Can Help You!

I invite you to Join the Performance Accelerator Plan that walks you through the process of learning key skills and more. You’ll be reading books to build skills and develop intercultural awareness.  Get more reading and learning tips here.

In December 2020, I published two books on Amazon. I would greatly appreciate your support if you bought my two short e-books Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon and Performance Accelerator Plan: Guide to Learning and Mastering Key Skills for the Future.

Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon is not about speed reading. It’s about approaching every book differently and reading only the sections that align with your purpose.

The Performance Accelerator Plan book is a stripped-down version of the paid reading challenge of the same name. Obviously, you won’t get all the resources that come with the program that I sell on my website. But if you are a self-directed learner, it will help you tremendously.

If someone clicks on a link and buys something from Amazon, the company will pay me a very small commission.