Coronavirus News (117)
Hit the Emotional Gym — The Founder's Framework for Emotional Fitness In the face of long hours, the turbulent financial path to building a new company, and pressure to make key decisions, founders confront a unique set of mental wellbeing challenges. They're often walking a thin tightrope between self-belief and self-doubt — the steadfast optimism in their vision to change an industry, and the fear that they don’t have the chops to pull it off. ......... if founders make taking care of their mental health an ongoing and proactive practice, it will reverberate through their companies, forging more resilient startups with healthier cultures and happier employees .......... strong companies take shape when emotionally fit founders are sitting at the top. .......... “Here’s what I mean by emotional fitness: Beyond having good coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety, depression, self-doubt and a series of curveballs that are completely out of your control, a founder must be able to form and maintain good relationships. You must be able to communicate effectively with co-founders, investors and employees” .......... “Studies show that 72% of entrepreneurs have mental health concerns — but I very much doubt that a similar proportion of founders are currently in therapy. And far too often we see the consequences of a failure to do that work when startups implode, whether it’s due to a toxic work culture, co-founder conflict, or deep-seated leadership challenges.” ............ building a mental fitness community that offers therapist-led group classes (typically in person, but now virtual) ........ “That one hour a week you set aside to tend to your emotional health frees up so many hours that would have otherwise been spent on thoughts that were subtly pulling you away from your work.” ........... A founder’s path has always been paved with big emotional boulders, but it’s particularly fraught now. .......... seven specific traits of emotional health, why they’re important for founders and a set of “exercises” for building up each of those muscles. ............ when you work on your physical fitness, you get stronger and you’re less likely to get sick later ......... Many people wait until they’re having debilitating anxiety before they start to think seriously about taking action. Maintaining emotional fitness is an ongoing, proactive practice that increases self-awareness, positively affects relationships, improves leadership skills and prevents mental and emotional health struggles down the line. Think about it less like going to the doctor and more like going to the gym ............ “I understand the need to keep going and stay focused — but I also know that the very things that make founders successful are also the things that can get in their way. Whether it’s the ability to work autonomously, push through exhaustion, or not let criticism deter you, these strengths can quickly become weaknesses that cause you to make unnecessary mistakes and miss important perspectives.” ........ Emotionally fit leaders are self-reflective. ...... They are patient, resilient and willing to be vulnerable with others. They can tolerate frustration and manage their emotions. They understand that the feelings they have about others have a lot to do with their own selves. ........ “Starting a meditation habit, focusing on your yoga practice or journaling every day can be impactful and I love these practices. And, sometimes you also need to dig deeper to get the support you need,” she says. “But you don’t want your company to become the catch-all for your unprocessed emotions. And that’s where therapy can help get you centered.” ......... We need to shift the narrative of therapy from something you access only when you're unwell to something you proactively do to promote wellness ........ “As a founder, it's extra important to take care of yourself because you're also responsible for so many other people. Therapy provides a space to process anxiety, frustration and other feelings, so that they don’t leak into the business and onto employees.” ........ An Olympic athlete wouldn’t be expected to reach their full potential without a coach. But for some reason, many founders think that they should be able to soldier on and shoulder their emotional burdens without any support. ............ Emotionally fit leaders can (and do) put themselves in others’ shoes on a regular basis. They recognize that what they feel about things might not necessarily be what others feel, and they strive for empathy even when it is difficult. ......... A founder is someone who’s used to running through walls, at the expense of their own health sometimes. I’ve seen founders face issues where employees say, ‘It’s clear that you want to keep pushing, but we’re at our limit” ........ When we’re in a crisis, we often skip over the work of uncovering what others may be going through. Overcoming these blindspots is key to cultivating empathy. ......... deploying an Emotional Fitness Survey to get a fuller picture of your team’s experience. ........... empathy does not mean that your problem is now my problem, or that I have to change the feeling. It just means I'm present in it with you ...... boundaries and empathy are not mutually exclusive. Learn to be clear about what you can offer others, and what you don't have the capacity to give in any particular moment. ........ “There is a psychological concept called psychosomatization, which means the physical manifestations of emotional states. If you’re feeling lethargic and don’t physically have the energy throughout your day that you’re used to, it could be because your empathy stores are dwindling. In other words, we store our issues in our tissues.” ........ Emotionally fit leaders understand and encourage the importance of play. Play sparks spontaneity and creativity, and is a crucial part of emotional health and interpersonal cohesiveness. Playing means trying on thoughts or concepts to see how they feel. It means having a free exchange of ideas and meeting of the minds. .......... it’s actually okay and really important that there is lightness, silliness and levity in their work as well ........ Emotionally fit leaders understand and tolerate the difference between what they want to be true and what is true, and they make it a habit to ask questions and be curious, even when the answers to those questions are uncomfortable. ........ Curiosity is at the core of what drives the entrepreneurial spirit — the belief that you can solve problems with unique solutions and innovate on the status quo. Building a company relies on curiosity about testing different hypotheses and continuously iterating. ............. curiosity is the best skill to counteract defensiveness. ....... cultivating your listening skills ......... Instead of focusing on what you’re going to say next, stay present in the conversation. ........ Allow for pauses and silence so the speaker can reflect on what they’re saying and expand upon it. The first thing a person says is often not what they really want you to know. ......... Don’t feel compelled to fix things or give advice right away. When in doubt, ask what the speaker needs — whether it’s comfort, solutions or they’re just looking to vent. ........ Emotionally fit leaders can sit with and process through discomfort. They are able to have tough conversations, be transparent about uncomfortable information, share complicated feedback and sit with a problem until it has been fully thought through. .......... strengthening mindfulness to how the practice of yoga involves holding your body and settling into poses that might feel uncomfortable in the moment ......... You do not need to break every silence, fix every issue immediately or avoid difficult conversations ...... In addition to encouraging founders to take up a yoga or meditation practice to continue building this muscle for tolerance, she also presses upon the importance of self-care. ....... if you want to lead and help others through times of struggle, you need to put on your own oxygen mask first. ....... Write down what you appreciate about three people you love. Send it to them. ......... Schedule a “worry hour.” Block off a slot on your calendar where you get to be as worried as you want for that amount of time. ........ As a founder, you often make the mistake of allowing yourself to slip into tomorrow’s worries instead of handling the challenges of the moment. You’re suffering future pain, needlessly. ........ ‘You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can still make the whole trip that way.’ ......... Emotionally fit leaders know that more is to be learned from failure than success, and can bounce back during trying times and can take in difficult feedback. Their desire to grow is genuinely greater than their desire to avoid criticism or failure. They are flexible and can adapt quickly. ........ the importance of leaning on your network of other founders and entrepreneurs ....... talk back to your harsh inner critic. ........ you have the argument again, but switch positions ......... a founder's emotional fitness is where it all starts. “It will reverberate through the company, make it better for everyone who works there and everyone who uses the product. Not only will people look to you as the founder to understand the culture of the company, but your beliefs will seep into your choices without you even realizing it” ......... It’s like how a parent’s emotional health will drastically affect their child's emotional health. The more work the parent does on themself, the better it is for the kids. ........... “One way I’ve started thinking about this world-shaking crisis is that it‘s blanketing our society with fresh snow, which means we all have the opportunity to create new tracks — new tracks for how we treat each other, the planet and ourselves. For example, I hope for a world where we're taught and supported to think deeply about our thoughts and feel our feelings — even the messy ones. What kind of new tracks do you want to create?”
Coronavirus may never go away, even with a vaccine Embracing that reality is crucial to the next phase of America’s pandemic response, experts say. ........ Even after a vaccine is discovered and deployed, the coronavirus will likely remain for decades to come, circulating among the world’s population. ........ Experts call such diseases endemic — stubbornly resisting efforts to stamp them out. Think measles, HIV, chickenpox. ........ The long-term nature of covid-19, they say, should serve as a call to arms for the public, a road map for the trillions of dollars Congress is spending and a fixed navigational point for the nation’s current, chaotic state-by-state patchwork strategy. ........... There are already four endemic coronaviruses that circulate continuously, causing the common cold. And many experts think this virus will become the fifth — its effects growing milder as immunity spreads and our bodies adapt to it over time. ......... “This virus is here to stay,” said Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago. “The question is, how do we live with it safely?” .......... Combating endemic diseases requires long-range thinking, sustained effort and international coordination. Stamping out the virus could take decades — if it happens at all. Such efforts take time, money and, most of all, political will. .......... U.S. leaders and residents keep searching for a magic bullet to bring the pandemic to an abrupt end: Drugs that show even a hint of progress in the petri dish have sparked shortages. The White House continues to suggest summer’s heat will smother the virus or that it will mysteriously vanish. A vaccine — while crucial to our response — is not likely to eradicate the disease .......... Challenges to vaccination are already becoming clear, including limited supply, anti-vaccine opposition and significant logistical roadblocks. ......... “People keep asking me, ‘What’s the one thing we have to do?’ The one thing we have to do is to understand that there is not one thing. We need a comprehensive battle strategy, meticulously implemented.” ........ a future with an enduring coronavirus means that normal no longer exists. ...... Arriving at this moment of transition required countrywide shutdowns, soaring unemployment and devastating blows to our economy and mental health. All that effort was supposed to buy us time to think, plan and prepare ........ I don’t see any signs the federal government has learned any lessons and is doing anything differently to prepare for the next waves ....... Leaders desperately need to shift their response from short-term crisis management to long-term solutions ......... Communities should be thinking about installing doors that don’t require grasping a handle, and re-engineering traffic signals so pedestrians don’t have to push crosswalk buttons ......... Families may have to make diagnostic tests routine ahead of visits to grandparents. Once-mocked work cubicles of a bygone era may become the rage again, replacing open-floor plans found in many offices. Paid sick time might become a necessity for jobs of all types. And heading to work while under the weather may no longer be seen as an act of admirable American can-do spirit but instead a threat to co-workers and the bottom line. ........... One hospital in New York tested every pregnant woman who came in to deliver and found 15 percent had the coronavirus. Most of those testing positive — 88 percent — showed no symptoms ....... “The psychological recovery is going to be as important as economic and logistical parts of this.” ....... America’s yearning for a quick fix has turned in recent days toward a vaccine, now being portrayed as a solution that will quash the virus once and for all. ......... But the world has achieved that only once, with smallpox — a measure of just how difficult it is for vaccines to wipe out diseases. And it took nearly two centuries after the discovery of a vaccine — and an unprecedented international effort — to vanquish smallpox, which stole hundreds of millions of lives. ........ emerging plans for vaccination are already stretching as far out as a decade. ....... Without international agreements worked out beforehand, the short supply could devolve into bidding wars, hoarding and ineffective vaccination campaigns. ....... America already has vaccines for measles and the seasonal flu, which can be deadly. And yet the health-care system struggles every year to convince people to get those shots. ...... We know that smoking can kill us. Yet, it is still responsible for 1 of every 5 deaths in the United States. ............... The CDC has been sidelined by the White House and blocked from holding public briefings. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made clear its priority is restarting the economy. ......... many Americans won’t make the shift toward long-range thinking until the virus spreads more widely and affects someone they know. ....... Eventually, everyone is going to know someone who got infected or died from this virus.
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