"We long to return to normal, but normal led to this"

Ed Yong

In the last 100 years or so, we have had our share of global crisis.

Each time humans were impacted by a global event, we have had to resort to some reset and reboot, lean and adapt and move forwards. Each aspect of our lives – physical, mental, and economic has been greatly impacted by these events. Some notable ones:

  • WWI and WW2
  • The great depression
  • The dot com bubble
  • 9/11
  • 2008 financial crisis
  • Covid-19 pandemic
  • Ukraine Russia conflict

All the above global events have three phases:

  • The lead up to the event
  • The transition
  • The new normal

After each event, we have adapted ourselves to move forward and embark into the New Normal. We keep hearing about the New normal since the pandemic.

So, what is this ‘new normal’?

A new normal is the state to which humankind settles following a global crisis. The new normal state impacts us physically, mentally, and economically and touches upon all aspects of our lives. Things are no longer the same as they used to be, and we must learn to adapt and live with the change whether we like it or not.

Perhaps the biggest impact of COVID-19 has been the change in the way we approach our working life and the focus on work life balance. On travel front, we are very slowly getting to travel as it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are lessons that could be learned from these events that we have perhaps missed.

How will these changes impact us further, only time will tell?