The new normal. Be careful of what you normalize - the bar moves. “Huh?” I have a friend who would look at herself in the mirror and think “not so bad” until she saw herself in pictures next to others. “What happened?” she asked. When she looked in the mirror and rationalized her weight, she was normalizing her gradual weight gain -- because she was comparing herself against herself. Incremental changes are not necessarily seen in the moment, because they are small and indecipherable. Our definition of “normal” gradually shifts. Sometimes you can only see it from afar.
I’ve been monitoring some online discussions regarding politics. I don’t typically weigh in to comment because I don’t need to involve myself in the fights, but as they used to say when I sailed with friends .. “no rain, no rainbow”. There are a lot of storms right now in society changing the “normal”. We also used to say “the only constant is change” -- basically, the only thing we can count on remaining the same is that things are going to change.
When we look to the future, it will be different. Perhaps not flying cars and robot maids* but it is a guarantee that it will be different. Me? I want positive change - I want to be healthier, more active and more successful for sure. So as the new normal happens, how do I in a non passive manner, affect the change that will be most positive for me? For me I can think of several things - healthy weight, positive attitude, daily exercise, optimistic perspective … my new normal can be anything and I want it to be better. You?
*I do love my Roomba, robot vacuum cleaner and I named her Agnes2.
