Should I close my office and go virtual full-time?
Here in Massachusetts we are six months into this pandemic. At the onset, no one quite knew how much life would change, how long it would last, or the difficult questions we would be having to ask and to answer along the way. Nor did I know that I would personally struggle to remind myself to Lean Towards Joy™ along the way. Uplifting messages are a lot easier to hear when things are already chugging along in life. But when things come to a stop and the darkness, fear, and hopelessness begins to creep in, it becomes increasingly harder to find that joy you must lean into. How can you focus on following your passion when you can’t leave the house? How can you shine your light when all the messages around you are full of despair and darkness?
Back during the first weeks of March, I remember sitting at my desk in our office in Lexington while my wife and I were discussing if we should send our oldest to pre-school because there was a recent pharma conference in our area that was a super-spreader event. This was before we knew what a super-spreader event even was. At the time I saw what was happening in Washington state and knew it was just a matter of time before we would see it in MA. I started making late night runs to Market Basket and stocking up the pantry with a few extra non-perishables and was more conscious about washing my hands and not touching my face. The world started getting more eerie. That office in Lexington has sat empty since that day. We scrambled around our house looking for a space free from housebound children and decided to slap up a curtain over the non-perishables and convert our pantry into an office.
I realized we were not alone in our scrambling. Millions of families across this country scramble to hold on to jobs by shifting them to home. If you are working from home you are one of the lucky ones considering that large segments of the economy are not afforded the option to work from home. However, balancing work and home life took a new turn now that work and home happen at the same place. Not only are we working from home, but most of us are now shopping from home, eating from restaurants from home, visiting distant relatives from home and some are even going on first dates from home. I just watched a live Ellie Goulding concert from home! COVID is shifting the function of our homes and has us re-imagining our lives.
When I came to this realization, I knew I wanted to be the architect of this re-imagination. I didn’t want outside forces dictating how I was going to feel on a given day. There is an Irish proverb “The longest road out is the shortest road home.” The care and effort put into the way you feel now will get you to where you want to go faster than making a bunch of rash decisions based in fear. The social emotional and financial pressures that this pandemic brought on, had me making decisions from a place of fear. Knowing that the best things come on the other side of fear, I decided to practice what I had been preaching for so many years. I began to follow my passions. Sure, things were different now, but I could still tap into the things that fulfill me, the things that bring me joy.
I began volunteering my time and expertise to my son’s pre-school, which like many, was on the verge of closing its doors for good due to COVID-19. Fortunately, the tide has shifted and now they are able to open their doors this fall. I also began offering help to families and small businesses who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. I helped them navigate the unemployment and PPP loan programs available to provide them the financial security to make it through these unprecedented times. I drew from the Lean Towards Joy™ philosophy that I had to follow my passion to shine my light.
So here we are six months since I last sat at the desk in Lexington and seven hundred words into this thought. And you are probably wondering, “so should I end my office lease and take my business online permanently?” The answer lies within how you feel about the question. For instance, if you are a therapist working with adults and you enjoy the benefits of tele-health sessions and you feel nervous about going back to in-person sessions then terminate your lease. If you can’t terminate the lease then sublet the space or talk to your landlord about a reduced rate for the remaining payments. In this environment many landlords have made concessions rather than forfeit revenue if a tenant just walks away from their obligation. And don’t forget your virtual life is not happening in a vacuum, many clients have adjusted to the virtual nature of life as well. Current clients and new clients are familiar with tele-health and are becoming more comfortable with these types of sessions. The rapport fostered with new clients may be different, but it still exists and continues to strengthen through the screen. On the other hand, if you feel like in-person is what you are most comfortable with then grab your mask, spread out the chairs, and renew your lease.
The only wrong answer to this question is to derive it out of fear. Regardless of your decision, you must first check in with yourself and make sure you are making the right decision based on how it makes you feel. Your clients will continue to show up and for the ones that don’t you will have more in line to fill in the opening they leave behind. Green leaves cannot grow if the old ones are not shed. For my wife and I, we have decided what is best for us is to let our lease expire at the end of the year. Sure, we love having a quiet space free from distractions away from the house. But for our family the risks of returning to the office are too great. My wife has continued to attract new clients via tele-health and I am in the process of expanding more of my virtual offerings as well. We will continue to face hard decisions that are just as unimaginable now as today’s decisions were unimaginable six months ago. And in the crux of these decisions is born an opportunity to Lean Towards Joy™, follow your passion, and shine your light.
