The ‘ME’ variant

“If the virus found the time to become a new version of itself, so can you.” – @spiritualheals/ c.cruz

So, what am I supposed to write for my last column for 2021, a year that has brought so much trials and tragedy for people all over the world? In a manner of speaking, many of us are probably running on fumes, just happy to see that today is the last day on the calendar, if you actually still have calendars on your walls. As I tried to start and restart on a topic, I imagined the yearender akin to a woodworker somewhere in the west, looking at a final piece of work, a chess piece, laying it down, picking up a broom and sweeping the shop floor, wiping desk tops, tools and laying them all away in a neat pile and taking out the trash. He takes off his shop apron, shakes it a couple of times, hangs it on the back of the shop door, and with both hands he closes shop on the final day of the year.

And right after the holidays, the doors open and the same person steps in to continue what he has been doing previously. In the old days that was it. You either had a profession or a craft that you master, and you lived out for the rest of your life and if you were wise enough, you manage to pass on the trade skills and secrets to your children and their children’s children. Whether it’s a trade, your way of life or you, yourself, I think it’s about time we asked ourselves if we simply want to be able to reopen the “shop doors” in 2022, or should we, like COVID-19, make an attempt at transforming and becoming a stronger variant of our former selves? By stronger variant, I don’t necessarily mean physically or emotionally or financially stronger, rather the type that survives even in the toughest of times, can do with less and have more fun or appreciation, and has enduring faith, so much like the viruses that seem to pass through everything that mankind has thrown at it.

Let’s not get into New Year’s Resolutions because thankfully the pestilence and fear that came with 2020 taught all of us to get serious with life and to live it with intentionality. If we learned anything from 2021 it is that we are not promised tomorrow and that the pandemic is far from over. I actually like the word and concept of becoming a “variant” because it recognizes the innate or original “You” and what you are made of, while transforming into a “variant” of your old self, points out what is necessary in order to survive and thrive in the new environment beyond definitions of profession, health status, economics and spirituality.

In the little that I have picked up from virologists and resource persons while interviewing them on the program Agenda aired on Cignal TV, the variants evolve in an environment where “weaknesses” or “defenses” are low. In terms of the COVID-19 virus, it hit sick people and populations who had TB or HIV, etc., the exposure or combination ultimately creating a variant. Using that as an analogy, I daresay that there is apparently truth that weakness can breed strength and if we pursue my mad version of an example, the variant always has modifications, additional attachments and features that make it mobile and adaptable. Those last two words are the key features why it’s hard to put variants to sleep, they move fast and they adjust to threats and challenges. In today’s business reality, many of the big names are gone, closed shop because they were too big or too slow to recognize threats or approve and adopt changes. Many died in their failure or refusal to shift to digitalization, redundancy, relocation or remodeling of business activity.

So how do you go from 1.0 to 22.0? Like the experts say, we need to retain the fundamental essence of who we are. That alone will be challenging because I know so many people have been swayed by society, business, politics and social media to “aspire to be” something based on a standard or model that was designed by someone other than ourselves. Several friends of mine spent hundreds of thousands of pesos to buy agricultural land without knowing the “REALITY” of farming. They were businessmen, NOT farmers. Some love lawyering while others desire privacy. Some can work 16-hour days, others believe in “intermittent work,” Temps or Work From Home.

I love production, creation, manual labor and agriculture, but I HATE hawking, direct sales talk and the like. I love talking with people, but I am equally wary of strangers who reach out from the cold. Perhaps the best formula would be to list the things you love and things you really hate. That defines you for the moment. Then determine what doesn’t seem to be or has not been working in your life in terms of relationships, work finances, spirituality and for you in a personal way.

You can shoot a target from so many different angles using so many different guns with many different calibers, but if you are a good shot you will hit the bullseye. The same way with trying to become the “ME Variant 22.0” You have to get rid of excess baggage or you have to grow skills and strengths the same way virus variants grew more spike proteins. The variants came about as a process of evolution; in our case we have to recognize the need for “evolution,” and we have to want it. Sorry, becoming “ME Variant 22.0” is intentional, not evolutionary.