I have seen a lot of jokes about how well introverts are dealing with no human contact. I can say there is some truth to this; I do not feel the need to reach out to people, mainly because I don’t enjoy talking to people through text, email, or Facebook. But communicating through Instagram photos and talks over food? That I can get down with that.
Too bad talking over food is now illegal for at least the next month.
I can’t say all this geographical or social distancing has been bad. Other than the number of streaming shows I have watched, I have zero guilt at this point about watching four continuous hours of a given show. I mean, I never really did. I just wasn’t as public about how long my binge fest could last.
Anyways there has been a lot of good lessons that have come from all of this, and I am sure looking back on this in a year, there will be even more.
Lesson 1: What Really Matters
When the world changes the rules to the game, it forces you to stop and re-evaluate what matters. It turns out toilet paper and instant mashed potatoes matter. They never did before, but now they do. The world changed the rules on you; you better start caring about things you never cared about before.
For real, though, when your job is stripped away, and your daily routines have fallen apart, what you are left with is what matters.
What are you left with?
For me, it was my family, close friends, and God.
Yours might be different than mine, but these are things you should never let drop. Because when everything falls away, these are the things that will still be around for you no matter what.
Lesson 2: You Can Change
People tell me all the time how hard change is or how they can’t change. Well, guess what? Everything changes, and you must respond to it, whether you wanted to or not.
Change is hard, and it can be uncomfortable, but we are all capable of doing it. Sometimes it takes a massive event for you to change.
I have learned more about my team at work and myself through these fast-acting changes. In two days, we went from coaching all in person to all online. This required new systems, new forms of communication, having to work from home with fluid schedules. It was not easy, but it had to happen.
And because of all these changes, it made us a better team, and allowed us to keep helping people, serving people, and coaching people.
Change is a beautiful thing when it is the necessary thing and the right thing.
Know that you can change, you can grow, and you can always get better or learn new ways of doing things.
Lesson 3: Know Your Lifeline
Let’s be real. All of this sucks, and it is scary, and we don’t know what to expect. It is easy to feel scared, alone, depressed, and a lot of other feelings that are not wrong to be feeling at this time.
You can’t stay stuck in these feelings, though. You can’t live with your head in the clouds either, pretending life is excellent and ignoring all the stuff you don’t like because if you don’t acknowledge it, then it is not happening.
This mindset is just as harmful.
I was going to say you need to find a place of balance, but truthfully I think the idea of balance is a farce and bullshit. What you do need is something to pull you back to a more normalized state of mind.
I call it your lifeline or your anchor. When you find yourself down, you can pull yourself back up; when you are floating away in the clouds, you can pull yourself back down.
My lifelines for pulling me up are prayer, exercise, projects, and looking at nature.
My lifelines for grounding me are finding how to serve the needs of others and talking with friends and family.
Know your lifelines.
Your Fitness Sherpa,
