Month-in-Review Highlights: April 2020

A creative advertising tactic dropped in our mailbox during the month: A pocket-packet of tissues wrapped with a promotion for a company doing digital medical consultations. April 19, 2020.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends, reflecting on what happened in general and, more specifically, in the context of my goals. Though I don’t share all my insights here, I have made it a practice to share at least one key highlight or insight. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

Coronavirus March may not have disrupted much my goal-related activity, but coronavirus April managed to make up for March’s benevolence by throwing many activities related to goal achievement into the penalty zone.

I could chew over all the activities I couldn’t undertake due to stay-at-home rules or I could break the prevailing societal trend of drama and negativity. And right now, I figure we all need a little more kindness, even when it comes to how we treat ourselves.

So I’ll focus on the positive.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, from which I’ve suffered far, far less than far, far too many people, I managed to stay on track with activity related to several goals in April 2020.

Mainly, despite “social distancing,” I’ve managed to attend several social events—business and otherwise—with friends, new friends, and business contacts:

• I’ve reconnected with friends in Houston and elsewhere on the planet via videoconferences thanks to time that few of us had to spare before COVID-19 slowed down our lives.

• I’ve attended several gatherings of the business networking group I joined here in Switzerland (where all the meetings take place in French—eep!). I’ve even felt brave enough to try my French a few times, now that I’ve seen a few faces more than once via Zoom and feel a little less shy and awkward as a result.

• I’ve gotten to meet and to hear from people all over the world through taking every possible opportunity to join seminars, workshops, talks, and creative events from locations as close as Lausanne and Geneva to as far away as Montreal. I’ve learned about international innovations for humanitarian aid developed in response to COVID-19, I’ve learned interviewing and video framing and editing techniques from filmmakers in California, and I’ve gained from a discussion around authenticity in corporations when it comes to expressing purpose. And more.

• I’ve even made new friends via a language exchange that a local acquaintance changed from in-person events every few months to weekly pair-ups that meet via videoconference. The native French speaker of the pair practices English with the native English speaker, and then we swap languages. New faces, more social interaction, and language practice—a winning combination.

When it comes to the many things COVID-19 made impossible, I’ve given myself a break. No guilt. None of us could have planned for this crisis, not even the sages who told us to beware a coming global pandemic.

Let’s aim to get through this disruption with a little kindness and a little sanity—to ourselves and to each other. We can pick up on currently unattainable goal-related activity on the other side.