01/04/2020
Today Lieke from Unlockyourpotential.todayy tells us how, after she just landed from Irak, she managed to find a balance and even good news in a Belgium in lockdown
"Because of my job as a trainer in the humanitarian and development sector, I work in countries all over the world. Up until the beginning of March, one and a half weeks before the lockdown, I was still working in Irak. There, I could already feel things starting to rumble around the world. Although Belgium still wasn’t taking any measures, my initial flight back to Belgium got canceled, for example.
Once I arrived back in Belgium, I immediately started to feel the impact of the crisis on my business. All my clients slowly started canceling their assignments and it seemed like I would be unemployed until the end of June. At first that came as a shock, but I decided to take the time to work on myself and to bring back the energy I lost from traveling around the world for 1,5 years. I started cooking healthy food, did yoga, hiked, talked to my friends and took some online courses. By being grateful for the things I did have, I was able to keep myself stress free: good friends, the sun shining, the support I got from the government.
Luckily, though, the tide turned for me, when I unexpectedly received a new offer for 6 months from an old client of mine and two other clients also came back with new assignments. Now that people have recovered from the initial shock, it seems like the dust is slowly settling and clients are starting to think of creative ways to cope with this situation.
I believe that many good things can come out of this crisis (think of the impact on the environment, more flexibility for employees…). The world will find a new balance, although it will be different from the one we know. I think that the most important thing we can do right now if to surf on the insecurity of this situation and see where this wave will take us.
