A Time to Reap and a Time to Sow

By Sherry Lutz Herrington

As I sit at home under “stay at home” orders, I think, what an odd time this is. It is so quiet, so calm.  Yes, there’s an underlying sense of fear and foreboding, I think we have adapted well as individuals, as families, as communities, as a nation, and as a world. 

We’ve learned that we can shift, and we CAN change our habits when we need to.

It seems we don’t need to go a hundred miles an hour all the time.  Staying home and figuring out how to be with our families might not be the worst thing in the world.  Learning how to greet our neighbors as we walk around the neighborhood exercising outdoors for a change might just reconnect us to our communities.  Showing compassion for others by letting an elderly person go in front of us in line at the grocery store might remind us how good showing kindness feels.

In business, this might mean learning to scale back and do things in a simpler way.  Do we really need face to face team meetings?  Is it imperative that we drive halfway across the state to meet with a potential client?  Is our business trying to be too many things for too many people or should we simplify our product or service offerings?

The changes we have made, the ways that we have adapted to this unprecedented time in history, may be our chance to sow the seeds of growth.

Right now, we are in a quiet, reflective state with time to figure out how to live more fulfilling, meaningful lives but also a time to reimagine our businesses to be more satisfying.

If you’ve been going a hundred miles an hour trying to make everything work, can you see an opportunity to slow things down?  Is there something you can sow now that you can reap the rewards of later?  Is this the time to make the changes you’ve thought about making but never seem to have time to do?  

Stop and reflect on your life and on your business and figure out what is really important and what you need to do to make that happen.

Embrace this unusual time and use it to your benefit.  Breathe, reflect, meditate, think about how you wish your life and your business could be different.  Then plan it out.  Decide what you want to do and how you are going to do it.  Take the risk of making a bold decision.  

Carpe diem. If ever there was a reminder that we may not have tomorrow, this is it.

Don’t let this period of calm become one of fear, embrace it and use it to move forward.  If that means in a new direction, that’s okay.  Soon enough, this will all be over and though we will undoubtedly find many things changed forever, but  we will adapt to our new reality just as we have adapted to this one.  

Think now about what you want to be reaping in the future and sow the seeds during this time of change so when it is all over, you will look back and know that you chose how you wanted your life and your business to be moving forward. 

Sherry Lutz Herrington is the owner of Sherrington Financial Fitness, a business consulting and accounting firm specializing in strategic business planning and solid financial accounting for businesses. She is also the author of Strong Women Thriving (https://strongwomenthriving.com/), a blog which focuses on empowering women to be financially savvy, particularly after experiencing financial abuse. Sherry is currently writing a new book that both shares her personal story and addresses financial abuse. She can be reached at hello@strongwomenthriving.com.