As we hurtle towards the end of our ‘unprecedented’ year, the question arises: What do we want our ‘new normal’* to be in 2021? These three books inspire us to create a better normal.

The Future We Choose: Surviving the climate crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac has been sitting on my bookshelf since March. Way back then, bushfires had just devastated our communities and landscape but in the face of the immediate pandemic, concerns about climate change were put on the back-burner.

I picked the book up today and I whizzed through it. Here is a compassionate, thoughtful and actionable response to a global crisis. While it might be specifically addressing climate (yes, still an issue), it is so relevant to where we are now (in Australia) with the pandemic.

Figueres and Rivett-Carnac acknowledge that things are looking pretty grim but the one thing each of us can bring – for ourselves and the planet – is our state of mind. And from there, we can act and bring about the positive changes that make our world a more compassionate, equitable, sustainable (perhaps even flourishing!) place.

They contend that change will happen when we shift our mindsets from pessimism to stubborn optimism; from scarcity to abundance; and from extraction to regeneration. And then take action. They kindly get the ball rolling with ten suggested actions that range from letting go of the carbon-filled (and let’s add racist, sexist, exploitative, etc) “old world” to being defenders of truth and political action. It’s all very rousing and it started me believing there are some very good eggs in the world.

More good eggs can be found in Tanya Plibersek’s (ed) Upturn: A better normal after COVID-19. This series of essays by some of Australia’s more progressive public thinkers addresses the “Where to from here?” question more specifically from a COVID perspective but similar values come to the fore.

Our response to COVID has shown us that we can act quickly and compassionately if needed, so how about we keep going and address the inequity and gaping flaws in the system now while we’re building anew?

In addition to addressing climate change, we can create a better ‘normal’ for indigenous folks, women, casual workers and in the arts, housing, healthcare, business, banking, education, and so much more. Upturn is evidence that people giving this some serious thought and there are solutions we can act on right now.

And just in case we have any lingering doubts that positive change is possible, Jess Scully gives us Glimpses of Utopia: Real ideas for a fairer world. This book is exactly what it says on the jacket. It is beaming with positive vision and stories of people around the world who are already putting innovative ideas into action for social, economic and environmental change.

It reminds us that we don’t necessarily need a step-by-step how-to guide to make things better. We just need a bit of vision, a bit of hope and a little bit of “Look! These people did it!” to kickstart our agency. From there we can create our own solutions to address our unique situations and challenges – and make our lives, and the world, a little bit shinier for all.

As we enter our brave new COVID-aware era, each of these books starts the conversations to help us create not just a new normal but a better normal.

*’normal’ defined here as the consistent and stabilising elements of your daily life – rather than a statistical box of exclusion.