What Is in My Hands to Do? (2) – ElPropósito5 min de lectura

Four habits to feel productive during a crisis

My improvised home office, March 2020

My first post on "What is in my hands to do?" focused on giving, above all on offering free coaching to partner with anyone who needed it during this crisis. I’m asking the question again: what else is in my hands to do? The answer is the purpose of this post. I invite you to read it and put it to use, and I sincerely ask you to share it so it reaches more people who could use it right now.

The first move companies large and small around the world made, despite the crisis and whatever may come in the short term, was to lend a hand. I asked myself the same thing from day one, as soon as I saw the coming months would be a real test. The outlook is very tough, yet there’s a lot we can do for others and for ourselves.

In "How to win the day with a REMO" I wrote about four personal habits that are part of my daily routine and leave me feeling I’ve had a productive day. If you missed it, take a look, especially now amid the complexity and uncertainty of COVID-19, and try to build those four habits into your days.

Life as we know it has changed and will keep changing a great deal, yet some fundamental principles will stay intact, personally and professionally. Habits are one of them. I’ve always believed in the power of habits to reach my goals and give my best (recommended reading: "The Power of Habit").

It’s in moments of greatest pressure that we get the chance to build habits aimed more inward, at who we are. This is the golden opportunity to learn lessons and, above all, build tools that make us grow as people. Life may never look the same on the outside, yet on the inside it stays the same, and it’s up to us to decide how much we want to change it and do things differently this time.

The VELA I always include in my postscripts carries a special meaning in my life. Vela means sail in Spanish, and sails are what push a ship forward. Every time I trim my ship to the wind, a VELA drives me ahead, makes me a better person and helps me grow. Beyond the REMO, here are four more habits I live by, and I invite you to make them yours, because I’m sure they’ll give you a daily sense of meaning and success:

• View: set out to watch something every day, a documentary or a movie
• Listen: a podcast, an audiobook
• Read: a novel, something technical, an essay
• Learn: the sky’s the limit. Set out to learn something new every day. For example, have you ever wondered how Bill Gates knew (before so many others) what the next world war would be?

The VELA may be the most important ingredient in my life, because it lets me capture everything that will help me build my goals. When I have a specific goal that matters a lot to me, everything in my daily VELA gets pointed straight at it.

Think about everything you’ve lived through since you realized COVID-19 was a big challenge for you. Now ask yourself: what will you do differently in your life from here on?

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

This week’s VELA:

• What I’ve been Viewing: Ben Bernanke, former chair of the Federal Reserve, on the current crisis. Bernanke led the Fed through the 2008 subprime crisis and everything that came with it. His view of today’s crisis gave me some relief, especially when he compares COVID-19 with the other recessions the world has been through. Worth reading.
• What I’ve been Listening to: Jazz. One of the things I value most right now is the silence that settles over Guatemala City after 4:00 p.m. It’s a silence forced by the situation, yet it lets us hear sounds that were always there, birds for example, and now I notice them. This week I had little time to enjoy it, but when I can, I enjoy music far more with my family.
• What I’ve been Reading: Viktor Frankl on Humor as a Lifeline to Sanity and Survival. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning may be my best recommendation for what we’re living through. Another great lesson from the renowned psychiatrist is the link between humor and crisis. Highly recommended.
• What I’ve been Learning: Coronavirus Is Widening the Corporate Digital Divide. An article on what happens once we learn to live with the new reality of work and daily life after the coronavirus. Last week, for example, for the first time in its 228 years, the New York Stock Exchange closed its Manhattan trading floor and moved all trading to electronic, virtual channels.

About the photo in this post: besides my projects and ventures, I teach several classes at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. This week was far more virtual than usual, between classes and webinars, and I had to improvise with whatever I had at home. It was my first time teaching a master’s-level course online: five hours of class with nineteen students over the week. It was a challenge, but with plenty of confidence, effort and dedication I made the switch. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t impossible either. Thank you to my students for their trust, their commitment and all the effort they put in these days. Thank you also to everyone who has watched the webinars I’ve given or joined. Here are the links:

• My purpose as a roadmap through the COVID-19 crisis. Thank you, Odontoweb, and especially my colleague and dear friend Mónica Fumero. I admire you, and you’re doing great work.
• How to ensure business continuity in a crisis by making the most of technology. A webinar sponsored by the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School Alumni Association (AGEAP) Guatemala. Thank you to those who’ve already told me about the first steps they’ve taken in their companies after this webinar. It truly makes me happy, and I’m sure good things will come from these practical tips.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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