What are you learning from the world crisis that’s happening around you? Are you regretting the situation that’s around you? What good can you see coming from the change to your daily routine? If we take time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are, then we’ll be better positioned to determine where we’re headed.

This covid crisis can either be a funeral home or a classroom. It really depends on what we do with it. Here are a few thoughts I’ve been wrestling with through this pandemic.

Our best lessons are learned in hard times.

It’s when we’re under the most challenge that we have the chance to grow the most. As a person who likes to workout this is pretty meaningful to me. I can’t pick up the lightest weight in the gym and expect to get stronger. But when I pick up a weight that’s heavier than I can manage, it forces me to grow and get stronger.

In this pandemic, we’re being loaded up with some pretty heavy and hard to handle circumstances. None of us asked to have them loaded on our shoulders. None of us wanted this to happen. But we can’t get angry with the darkness of the situation. We need to cast the light we’ve been given into that dark situation. What has your past given you to prepare you for this moment?

What you look for you will find.

One thing has struck me about this pandemic that is different from every other epidemic or pandemic in history. We’ve done nothing but focus on the illness and death side. Every other pandemic in history has focused on recovery rate. Why? Because what you focus on expands. Pretty simple.

When’s the last time you bought a new to you car? What’s the first thing you realized after you drove that car home? Everyone has the same car as you!

Throughout this crisis and the recovery that’s now in front of us what will you focus on? Will you focus on rules, regulations, illness, and death? Or will you focus on recovery, new opportunities, preventative measures and faith?

Take time to look ahead and see what’s coming for you. The future is coming at you and the past is going away from you. Are you ready for what’s coming?

Everything you want but don’t have is likely outside your comfort zone.

Crisis doesn’t throw us off when we’re in our zone. When we’re in our comfort zones we’re on top of it. But when we’re not in the stablility of our comfort zones we can easily get knocked off our feet.

On the flip side, we don’t grow and learn when we’re in our comfort zones. When we’re moved out of our comfort zone, we either go in a negative direction and freeze or become lethargic and lazy. Or we’ll be moved in a positive direction where we learn and grow. I recently heard someone say If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got.

Everyone doesn’t respond to failure the same way.

How we define failure will determine how we move through and beyond it. If I see failure as the opposite of success, then I will avoid it at all costs. But if I see failure as an inevitable part of life, then I’ll embrace it and learn from it.

Failure does not define us when we learn from it, adjust and move past it. When you face failure – Pause. Reflect. Redirect. Succeed.

These are just a handful of the things I’ve been thinking about through this pandemic. What have you learned about yourself and your leadership through it?