What strange times we are living in… That’s the only way I can describe what’s going on in Melbourne right now. Every day there is something new happening & its been hard to plan anything. It’s seems like we have somewhat “lost” life how we know it for now but within every “negative” situation I’ve found there is pro’s & con’s.
For my own sake I have stopped following the news. I can’t help but think that all the “crisis” words they are throwing around are to keep fear in us. There has been times throughout this period of history where I have thought “Why are we cutting hair?” ; “Surely if nail salons & beauty salons are closed then why aren’t we?”
; “Why are we different?”.
I heard an interesting fact this week. More people have died in Australia from suicide since COVID-19 than the actual virus itself. Now I am no expert & I don’t claim to be so I cannot out this solely down to the fact that we are in a pandemic – as mental health is an ongoing issue that needs continuous support & addressing within society.
The point I’m trying to make is that – WE can make a difference. The relationship we build with our clients & the feeling they get from coming to see us as their barber/hairdresser is imperative. It’s such a valuable connection that can literally save lives. Just look to the likes of my brother’s Nasir Sobhani (@thestreetsbarber) & Matt Brown (@myfathersbarber) & look at the good they are doing in the world as “barbers” – they inspire me so much! They have thought me that we provide a certain type of therapy for our clients. A safe place where they can open up & have a chat to a neutral source. Therefore I think its so important that we stay open & operating if we are allowed to. We need to keep being of service so that we can help our clients & ourselves through this rough time!
For me, I’ve been looking at this time as a reflection period & an enormous amount of new opportunities have come from it. Opportunities that may have never come about only for this time. Talking with some of my clients they have been the same. People have got out of toxic working situations that they may have never escaped from only for this forced break in routine. They are now on their new journey & happier than they’ve ever been.
We all have a little more time now to work on our goals, figure out how we are going to get to the place we want to be & reverse engineer a plan to help get us there.
It has forced everyone to look within & figure out if we are on the right path. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be writing this blog if it wasn’t for our current situation or AREA Academy wouldn’t exist! – I guess what I’m trying to say is to always look at things from a “glass half full” rather than “glass half empty” perspective. You can always turn what is perceived as a negative into a positive!
Eoin
