Well, I don’t know about you, but this year has been a bummer in Lynn-world.

I try to be positive. Sure, I do.

‘Bring it on, Pandemic’, I said. Over and over and over again, as I redrafted wellness action plans and weekly schedules.

I looked up local walks, I stuck rainbows in my window (mind that?), I bought colourful facemasks.

I zoom-quizzed, I made a home-office routine, I took up running.

I tried.

Oh goodness I’m a trier.

But for the past couple of weeks I’ve been going through a different pandemic-phase. It’s called the, ‘No, I can’t’ phase.

Non-pandemic-Lynn would rarely say, ‘I can’t’. It’s not in my proactive-the-world-needs-changed-yesterday nature.

This is usually a pretty useful attribute. I’m the person who gets stuff done. I’m never the one who says ‘that’s not my job’.

But, November-2020-Lynn?

I’m the person who gets stuff done if I feel I have the time. I’ll take on new things if I have the capacity to do it. Every day I’m asking myself, ‘Is this a priority?’.

Am I being self-centred and less committed? Or am I being more honest with myself and others and delivering things better?

I’ve been chatting with HR professionals recently and everyone is so stretched right now. There is an expectation for HR to have all the answers… in an unprecedented time when guidance is changing daily! I was struck by the article 'HR leaders experiencing the most stressful year of their careers'. If people are stressed, the PEOPLE people are stressed!

November-2020-Lynn would encourage you to:

·         Recognise your needs and articulate them.

·         Ask for a call instead of a virtual meeting if that works for you.

·         Push back a deadline a couple of weeks/months if you can.

If I’m tired, I’m guessing you are too. This is more than self-care; this is a humanising-revolution.

Join me, fellow human, in saying ‘I can’t’ sometimes. And take care.