This is what I shared with my newsletter subscribers on March 19, 2020. I hope it helps you as well all navigate this very uncertain time.
I had a very different piece of content planned for today, but nothing about this time feels "business as usual." I'm sure you can relate.
Perhaps you're working from home right now and making major lifestyle changes in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. My family and I are, too, and everyday I find myself straddling the line of feeling moderately calm and somewhat anxious about the future. It's a tough, strange time.
The uncertainty we are facing personally and as nonprofit organizations is confronting.
My dad reminds me that uncertainty is part of life. We are constantly navigating uncertainty, whether we are aware of it or not. Unfortunately, right now, we are all too aware of the uncertainty.
For me personally, I'm muddling my way through this uncertainty most days by doing my best to prioritize my mental health. For me that looks like journaling, knitting, and spending time calling and texting friends and family. It also looks like limiting my exposure to news. No, I'm not sticking my head in the sand. Simply trying to moderate the amount of news I take in everyday by limiting myself to two news podcasts per day.
Professionally, I'm doing my best to keep moving forward even though it feels difficult to find my motivation at times. Perhaps like me this morning you find yourself thinking, "What the heck do we even say to our audience these days??" On this particular day, radical authenticity felt like the only way forward.
This week, I did my best to answer that question for you in a post on the Bloomerang in a post on donor communications during a crisis news cycle. What I shared can also be applied to your broader organizational communications.
I hope that you are taking good care of your physical, emotional, and mental health.
Be well and know that this too shall pass.
- Vanessa
