OPINION / Was there ever a normal?

Each week, we read something or we hear someone speak of "normal” within varied contexts.

The predicted motion of anything is either when things go "back” to normal. Using the past as an indicator of comfort and our mind doing what it does best; referencing historical data, in order to make calculated decisions for the future. Risk aversion. And it can also get you stuck and stagnant, an experience we know as cognitive dissonance.

The "NEXT” normal. Looking to the future for a reference to build upon.

The "NEW” normal. An adjusted or reframed way of living.

Personally, In both work or even personal environments I have viewed normal as a convention, a framework, an average indicator we measure almost everything against - because evolutionary conditioning led us here. Survival of the fittest. It gives the lost direction and the determined focus. The safety from rejection, because normal is socially acceptable, and abnormal is rejected.

It is "Normal”, for a woman and man to marry, it is normal for a woman to be nurturing and soft. It is normal to find a stable job, get married, buy a home and have kids. Is it normal or conventional?

But, realistically -was there ever a "Normal” ? Maybe more of an unconscious routined way of existing and operating? Was "normal" the result of Institutionalised conditioning. We were trained to operate within a conventional framework, and when anything disrupts that we are destabilised.

Perhaps that is what we are searching for. However, is stability the same for all? What does stability mean for you?

In the business of communications planning , "meeting people where they are” needs to incorporate a foundation of nowness. That is human centricity.

Innovation, growth and progression wont happen if we are yearning for the past. We can only learn from it.

The secret to health for both mind and body, is not to mourn for the past nor to worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly - Buddah

Let's not forget, our power to affect anything, is in the present moment.

The "NOW".

Explore more about risk aversion in this article by HBR.