Thriving Under Lock-Down?
The reality has sunk in. Things are different now. A nation built on freedom and liberty has elected to quarantine ourselves to combat an invisible enemy. Every parent is a homeschool teacher. Most workers are telecommuters. Hundreds of thousands are quickly without work. The tears have dried from March Madness being cancelled. Expectations for how 2020 was going to look just a month ago have changed on a dime.
Most of us have consumed more news in the past month than we did all of last year combined. Changing sagas of infections and the government, Federal Reserve, and financial market responses have played out like something only imagined in a movie. Many people are stuck in a social media loop trying to figure out what to believe and how everyone else is reacting to things.
So we now have a choice. We can move forward being led by things that we have very little control over or we can take control of our new reality and make the best of it. What is it going to be? I remember going through my cancer treatments back in 2013. A surgery in March, two rounds of chemo, followed by another surgery in July, followed by 6 more rounds of chemo that finished in early January of 2014. I remember that fall going through the chemo I would often say “I can’t wait to put 2013 in the rearview mirror and move ahead into 2014”.
It sounded normal, but it just hit me one day that it wasn’t right. Yes, I wouldn’t have wished it on anyone, but there were so many things I experienced during that time that I couldn’t have fully realized without going through challenges – awareness of just how precious my family was to me, seeing how our friends and community stepped up to help us, strengthening of my faith and relationship with God, how to creatively keep business going during that time and navigate the financial challenges of not having “paid time off” or sick leave as a self-employed business owner.
I realized that in a business like mine, I work with clients who have gone through, are going through, or will be going through challenges. It affects us all at different times, but it’s how we respond that determines if those challenges improve us or break us.
For those of you who find yourself without work, what can you do to prepare yourself to be better positioned to thrive when you return to work (whether at your same company or a new one)? What do you need to learn during this time? What updates do you need to make to your resume to be prepared? Who do you need to reach out to in your professional circle? With kids out of school, we’ve been able to have them doing Khan Academy and Ted-Ed videos allowing them to explore topics that they never would have gotten into at school and expanding their horizons.
With gyms closed and restaurants limited, what is your health & fitness going to look like? We have had fun family exercise time out in the garage and my kids are learning and doing new things that I believe will benefit them for years down the road. Elizabeth has been creative with meals and we are eating as healthy as ever.
There are so many areas I am thinking about – Health & Fitness, Education (books you’ve been wanting to read or topics to study), Financial and Household Organization, Family interaction, Spiritual and Mental health etc. that we have the opportunity to improve or decline in during this period of time. I’ve been accumulating a list of resources to help organize the best ideas I come across of websites, podcasts, blogs, etc in any of these areas that can help us be at our best now and on into the future.
Please email me at jeff@phase4fs.com to share any resources that have been helpful for you to learn or be more effective.