What will be the new normal after COVID-19? An editorial by Jerko Bozikovic about the challenges and opportunities arising from the pandemic news For over 18 months, the world has been challenged in reinventing itself constantly. Nobody would have im- agined ringing in the 2020 new year that the world would go through what it has: lockdowns, red zones, health crises, isolations, reinventing the workspace and so much more. Most of us thought that this might be a temporary situation; however, three months became six, became 12, be- came 18, and we are still counting. While in some areas in the world, life has gone back to normal, in other ar- eas strong measures are being taken again and the solutions that were promised to us by specialists, politi- cians and the media suddenly have not given us back the life we are all longing for. So, in this new, unstable reality, how can we be the best we can be? We live in a world of VUCA— volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity—concepts most people do not like. Therefore, the challenge is not to try to avoid these—the reality is that we are living in VUCA—the challenge is dealing with them. VUCA concerns all aspects of life, personal and professional. Each of these four types of challenges re- quire four distinct types of responses. It would be interesting to delve deeper into them for yourself through a self-examination. A good exercise to do for yourself is to write down those four different challenges in different areas of your life and assess honestly how they have affected you and how you dealt with them. Have you really dealt with these, or did you hope they would pass? If you dealt with them, did you create the desired results? If you did, what were the outcomes? If you did not create the desired results, did you try other ways to create the desired results? This applies to all areas of your life: yourself, your partner, your kids, but also your patients, your new habits, but do not be afraid of creating your own reality in this VUCA world, by following your intui- tion, acknowledging the specificities of your work environment and taking the steps you feel you need to. If we give our authority away, it is difficult to create the life we want, we need, we deserve. That authority can be politicians and scientists but also patients, colleagues, etc. Be open to listening, to observing, to analys- ing, to challenging, integrating the outside truth with your inner truth. My experience is that this will take you where you want to go, will give you the answers you seek, will give you the tools to deal with what is happening around us in this VUCA world. As I said before, life is not what happens to us, but how we deal with it, and honestly, I think we are in for a longer, more challenging and more exciting ride than we can foresee. Take that opportunity to connect with your inner truth, to connect with the people around you who matter, to lis- ten to their feedback, and to create together the best life and work envi- ronment you can in these times. “May the force be with you”, like the famous movie said, but most of all, do not be scared, angry, frus- trated, desperate. These emotions do not help us build the life we want. Transform that energy into solutions, hope, connection, love, possibilities, and be open to the impact that this will have. Editorial note: This article was pub- lished in ortho—international maga- zine of orthodontics, vol. 6, issue 2/2021. About the author Jerko Bozikovic is a specialist in communication skills, emotional intelligence, time and stress man- agement, leadership and change management. He is fascinated by human behaviour and finds work- ing with people on personal de- velopment to be a daily challenge and blessing. He speaks seven languages and has offered his train- ing courses in four languages since 2001. He embraces and embodies the motto “Love the life you live; live the life you love”. He can be contacted via LinkedIn. team, your colleagues, your providers and your professional partners. I do not believe in the concept of assessing something as good or bad. We live in a world ruled by duality: yes/no, good/bad, young/old, rich/ poor, man/woman, sick/healthy, cor- rect/incorrect, etc. As long as we keep thinking in this duality, we will fall into the pitfall of seeing things only our way. But things are seldom black or white, yes or no, correct or incor- rect. There is a whole range in be- tween, creating nuances, and every situation also depends on the context. There are two questions I find more interesting to ask ourselves: results (which was Einstein’s defini- tion of insanity: hoping for different outcomes doing the same thing), or you do something different to create a different outcome. Is what I am doing efficient? Is it giving me the desired results? If the answer is yes, keep doing it; however, if the answer is no, then you have a choice: either you keep doing the same thing, creating the same This approach is for me funda- mental in doing the exercise I have suggested, identifying your reactions and behaviours in the VUCA world we live in. What you did in the past 18 months in dealing with a VUCA world was not good or bad. Rather ask yourself whether it was efficient and whether it gave you the desired results. If yes, wonderful! If no, it is an opportunity to start looking for other ways and methodologies. I strongly encourage you to ask your team to do the same exercise too, to give you feedback and different perspectives of the past 18 months—and that can only be beneficial for you, your team and your patients. The same of course applies to your personal life with your partner, kids or friends. Another impact the past 18 months might have had on you is that some measures of safety or hygiene, for example, were created for a COVID-19 environment. Many might have thought that this would only be temporary, but it might be that some of these procedures are here to stay. This is the same for some other protocols for work and for collaboration, com- munication, delegation, etc. that had to be installed and developed in this ever-changing world. Therefore, take the learned lessons to a next level, integrating them and making them 14 AEEDC Dubai 2022 · 1–3 February 2022 © treety/Shutterstock.com© diy13/Shutterstock.com