The last 48 hours have been unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. Major parts of our daily lives have come to a complete halt. We’re in uncharted territory facing a common enemy that demands a community response. We have to make hard decisions for ourselves, our families and our businesses that are not self-centered but community centric.

We talk a lot about the power and importance of community at Growing Bolder and now it’s time for all of us to prove that those are not just words that sound good and feel nice to say because the concept of community is more important than ever.

As most of our friends and followers know, we’ve postponed our Launchpad to What’s Next LIVE! events until this fall. We’ll be announcing new dates soon. Postponing our events was the right thing to do given the amount of uncertainty that surrounds all of our lives right now. It was the right thing to do because we are part of a bigger community and care deeply about the health and wellbeing of that community.

Community is defined as any group of people living in the same place or sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Unless you live in a vacuum you know that the common interest and common goal that we now share, in our own neighborhoods and beyond, is a desire to mitigate and ultimately eliminate the virus COVID-19. This common enemy is a painful but important reminder that we, every human being alive, are all part of the same community. We have a shared interest that is vital to our future.

In truth, we have many common enemies that should bind us all together every day of every year: the new and novel viruses that we will undoubtedly face in the years ahead, diseases of all kinds, polluted water, climate change, toxic air, poverty, lack of education, and more. COVID-19 and the other common enemies of mankind don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican, rich or poor, urban or rural, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American, or whatever you may be. They threaten us all. They threaten our families and our livelihood. And yet, we remain divided every day of every year by social constructs like racism, sexism, and ageism.

The DNA of every human being alive is 99.99% identical. That’s exactly why we’re now facing this global threat and why we will continue to face new ones in the future. We are all the same. We have the same basic needs and desires and face the same challenges. Occasionally, as we are now, we’re reminded how small this planet is and how interconnected we all are. In this case, it’s a virus 2,000 times smaller than the diameter of human hair that’s delivering our wake-up call. I’d like to think we’re bigger than that.

When our lives return to normal (whatever that is) our Launchpad to What’s Next LIVE! events will be more important than ever. We all need support, encouragement, inspiration and motivation to keep moving forward. We all need community – now more than ever.