Whether you call it scary, exciting, or unsettling, one thing is for sure: The world has been going through a mammoth transformation in recent years. These are days you will never get back. Days that will define you. Opportunities that you will never see again.
You have the opportunity to do things now you have never done before, and you have newly-paved avenues that haven’t been available before. But be assured that the world has changed and is changing. Forever. We aren’t going back to the old normal. It is a day of new wineskins. Old keys won’t open the new doors in today’s world.
For many businesses like airlines, arts and entertainment, luxury hotels, restaurants, and others, getting back to pre-coronavirus levels won’t happen soon, if at all. Some businesses have already thrown in the towel, and others are struggling frantically to stay afloat. Bed Bath & Beyond, Sears, Party City, JC Penney, Belk, GNC, Pier 1 and others have either filed for bankruptcy or closed their doors entirely since 2020.
The businesses and other thriving entities are those that have reexamined their business or ministry models and tweaked or completely revised their approaches. These are some of those changing models.
CHURCH.
There are no two ways about it. Church has gone virtual, and some churches are actually very good at it. Good doesn’t necessarily mean polished, just fruitful and creative. From parking lot services to Facebook Live and podcasts to Instagram stories, the church is connecting much more effectively today than it did a few years ago. Depending on the survey you see, church attendance is declining. According to some pastors, even regular church-goers attend only once or twice a month in many cases.
Home is safer for many. Whether physical, mental, or emotional, people feel more comfortable watching church on a computer or television in their homes. In their PJs, with their coffee. People who wanted to go to church but didn’t want to risk being physically or emotionally vulnerable- can now “attend” in the safe zone. This provides new connection points that must be followed up.
Not surprisingly, church buildings aren’t filling up, even as other parts of the economy are re-opening. Churches must continue to be creative and adjust their connection points to reach people. Those merely waiting for the return to normal will be waiting a long time. And perhaps dying on the vine.
Churches with more resources (e.g. financial, ingenuity, creativity, initiative) will thrive. Those without may struggle.
But don’t misunderstand: While churches will need to adjust, adapt and change, the opportunity to thrive is more possible now than before. Innovation and remodeling the approach can revitalize the message, but many churches will follow the route of the old brick-and-mortar stores that are falling victim to the changes and paradigm shift.
It’s the day of the new wineskins.
EDUCATION.
Yep, the days of sitting in classrooms may be ending, or at least beginning to end. Colleges and universities are going the way of major brick-and-mortar stores that didn’t keep up with the Amazons, WalMarts, and others. More and more, you see empty buildings on college campuses, and, unfortunately, you’ll see more in the coming years.
It’s not that people aren’t interested in learning. It’s more how they learn. And how much they pay. The cost of education has gone through the roof in the past few decades. Student loan debt is one of the greatest crises in America today: Borrowers owe more than $1.64 trillion in student loans. And, while other debt can be negotiated away, student loan debt doesn’t go away in bankruptcy or other credit-fix scenarios. Yes, I’m familiar with the current political morass regarding student debt, but no one should count on that bailout.
Now education is going virtual, and that will mean convenience and hopefully lower prices eventually. New companies are emerging who will hire teachers and administrators to teach hundreds at a time online. Existing funding will focus more on the students in the future rather than educational facilities. Also employees and employers are also coming to grips that you don’t necessarily need a college degree to succeed. Remember, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs didn’t have degrees when they became successful.
It is a day of new wineskins.
HEALTHCARE.
Just as the days of the doctor’s house call gave way to offices, so too are their offices giving way to virtual healthcare. Even before the coronavirus set in, telehealth was on the rise, and experts predicted a 65% growth in 2020. Experts now predict more than a billion virtual healthcare interactions this year. Teladoc reports more than 15,000 virtual visits a day.
Hospitals are ramping up technology and staffing to build out their telehealth platform. By seeing patients online, these “visits” minimize ER visits, limit exposure for doctors and nurses, maximize home health, and further centralize a system around the heavy hitters in the medical field. In other words, your friendly family doctor with the stethoscope wrapped around his neck is on the way out.
SHOPPING.
Well, duh, we knew this was coming. As mentioned above, the brick-and-mortar days are crumbling. Malls that were hanging on when 2019 became 2020 are on their deathbeds. The anchors that were their bread and butter — Sears, J.C. Penney, Dillards, Macy’s — and others like Bed Bath and Beyond, GNC, Forever21, and Abercrombie and Fitch are gone or on their final legs.
Online ordering is up, and delivery companies are more available now than ever before. Grocery stores and restaurants have discovered that pick-up and delivery provide a cleaner business, and it’s more lucrative. Many restaurants that didn’t adapt are already shuttered.
Can chains and others sustain the growth they saw in 2020 and 2021? Perhaps not, but they will never return to pre-coronavirus levels. And, as we examined earlier, it’s a little late to complain with righteous indignation about the cashless society. But we have been inching closer for decades; the coronavirus era only highlighted it more.
YOUR LIFE.
Ah, yes, it all comes full circle. How will you interact with The Great Reboot? What will its impact be on you and your family? Older generations — who remember rotary phones, milk delivered to the front porch, and black and white TV — may struggle more with new technology. Still, the paradigm shift will affect everyone, and those who adapt and adjust will be the big winners. And survivors.
Just as you can’t put new wine into old wineskins, you’re probably finding that old keys don’t open new doors. Here are a few tips to keep learning and stay fresh:
- Read. Yes, the book seems to be going the way of brick-and-mortar stores too. But it’s still the way successful people learn, create, and grow.
- Stay curious. Ask questions. Lots of questions. It’s one way to keep your mind fresh. Curious about what? Everything. Life, nature, new avenues, new opportunities.
- Find your people. Everyone needs a people. We call it Your Fab 5. If you haven’t read our latest book, get it at Amazon and start to change your circle, change your life and change your future.
- Be active. Don’t be a couch potato. Take a walk or a ride. Do something. This gets the endorphins flowing, which will help release pain, lower stress, and helps your immune system.
We live in a different era. If you continue to do the same things, hoping to see different results, indeed, that’s insanity. If the old keys don’t work, find out another way to get inside and start living.