Out With The Old, In With The New?

This pandemic has brought in a complete new outlook towards our way of living and our lifestyle as whole. Just like everyone around me, I've been quite anxious about what is happening and how our lives are changing as a part of the Covid Impact.

While most of us are wondering around one question, "When will things return to normal?", I am amused to see how most of us have adopted the so called "New Normal".

The whole world is buzzing around the term "New Normal" but at the same time, it has made us appreciate the value of the things that aren't normal anymore.

As humans we are designed to be adaptive towards change, we can't control certain changes or circumstances, but what we can control is the way we react to them and how we move forward. Hence, we all are now a part of this transformation where we are almost out with the old and in with the new!

We all wish things to go back to normal, where we all lived in a world with less rules and restrictions, when socializing, travelling and going to work was just normal but instead of looking at it with the perspective of "New Normal" let us actually normalise our concept of the New Normal.

Here, I have some personal perspective to share with you all, which brings out the positive outlook of the New normal:

• Skill Upgradation

With the changes happening around due to the Covid pandemic it has become a mandate to upgrade ourselves so that we can be adaptable and up-to-date with the trends and developments in our respective fields. This lockdown has given us an opportunity to work towards our professional growth, become resourceful and add value to our career goals.

• Technology Advancement

Ten years ago when we talked of how 2020 would look like, we imagined flying cars, automatic transports, working robots and IoT taking over every single operation around us. Guess what, we have reached a level where technology is evolving faster than ever. This "New Normal" has not only generated the need for new advancements but also an urgency to create solutions quicker than normal. We can now see working robots in the hospitals, people becoming used to Artificial Intelligence and IoT devices, AR/VR based eBooks and eLearning platforms taking over the traditional classroom learning outlook and many more.

The modern era of 4th industrial revolution with emerging and enabling systems and technologies like 5G, AI, machine learning, big data, IoT, Block chain, cloud computing, virtual/augmented reality, and cybersecurity is already bringing drastic positive impact on improving the quality of life and experience.

• Hygiene Factor

The Pandemic has been a blessing in disguise when it comes to maintaining the hygiene factor. People nowadays are more consciously cautious towards maintaining a clean and healthy surrounding. The exemplary demand growth in the hygiene products itself shows the serious measures people are taking in keeping themselves and the surroundings hygienic.

Talking of the New Normal, where we are now normalizing "Washing hands frequently", sanitization, using mask and gloves, we are also witnessing a change in the social hygiene behaviour and the quality of services. But if we really look it with a different perspective, are we really going the new normal way? Or actually going back to the age old Indian traditional roots where maintaining hygiene was a normal part of the lifestyle for our ancestors.

• Family Time

Though with the new normal we are now enforced to maintain social distancing with our friends, colleagues and relatives just to realise how it has got us close to our family members. Due to our busy schedule we almost forgot spending time with our family. This pandemic has certainly proved to be good in terms of quality time with family, a better understanding of each other's day to day activities.

Since the new normal has not left us with many options for socialising and hanging out I have been able to spend more time with my parents, spending fun evenings and having dinners together. Social distancing and spending more time at home might feel a bit inconvenient but that's the best alternative right now to protect our loved ones.

• Discovering the new self

During the lockdown not only me but I have seen most of my friends and colleagues posting on social media about all sorts of new hobbies they have been exploring right from learning to cook new dishes & cuisines to new workout regimes to bringing out the inside artist. The best part about this is , we are not only doing it out of boredom but also making it a part of our new lifestyle by discovering the new self!

• Valuing things

This pandemic has taught us many lessons which majorly includes the way we have started to value little things that really matter. Life is all about valuing the little things of great importance like peace of mind and time spent with the loved ones.

Currently, we might be overwhelmed by the fear of Coronavirus, but it’s still teaching us a lot. Of course it was tough in the initial days when we had to suddenly confine ourselves at home and not have any access to the daily world routines but with time it has shown us the importance of the minute things that we took for granted which now, we will certainly not! It has taught us that we don't really need too much to be happy.

The New or the Normal

In our day-to-day routines and while building our careers, becoming successful and earning money, fame and glory, we have forgotten the basic thing — the value of life. And this pandemic has made us realise it's worth to an extent. Rather than expecting the things to get back to normal let us appreciate and accept these changes with a positive attitude, since the changes are inevitable and meant to happen with or without any pandemic happening around. It is on us as to how we learn to embrace these changes and move forward.

PS. Let me know in the comment section below about your views on how the new normal has affected you or was there any new or major challenges you faced?