During my clinical training, I had a client/patient who had gone through a lot and for whom things seemed like they wouldn't improve. I shared with her the central (early) plot of the tv show "Lost" as a metaphor for us to consider. #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

I described how the passengers of the plane crashed on a deserted island and had to make decisions about what to do. There were essentially two competing decisions to be made: 1) wait for rescue; 2) assume this was their life now and embrace it.

Waiting for rescue meant likely living on the beach in temporary shelters, getting food as they needed it, waiting, and just surviving until things changed.

Assuming this was their life meant figuring out how to *make* a life - finding good source of H20, figuring out sustainable ways of getting/making food, creating a school for the kid, making homes that would withstand weather and time, creating relationships, and meaning/purpose

The point was, my client had two competing choices - to either keep hoping things would change or to decide this was likely her life and how to make it better and sustainable given the current circumstances.

The idea is akin to radical acceptance - you don't resist reality - you accept things are they are. It doesn't mean you approve of it, that you like it, that it is good for you - it just means that you accept it and work within the parameters you are given.

I am thinking about this a lot today as I was told yesterday that at a meeting next week that we won't be back into the office until 2021. I also heard estimates of february or march. That would make it almost a full year - or a full year since we began working from home.

So like, that is conceivably another 8 months like this. To date, I have sort of accepted this is our reality - but also sort of radically resisted/denied it. Like, part of me kept hoping things would get better maybe in the fall.

I realized this morning that I likely need to radically accept this as my new normal and need to figure out what I need to put into place to make working from home for possibly another 8 months sustainable.

I'm curious - if you knew now that you would be working from home for the next 8 months - what would you need to do to make it sustainable for you? If the way things are for you now are the way things will be for 8 months, what would need to change?