Turning the pandemic on its head.
I almost never address current affairs in these posts. However, I realized that – if we so choose – we can actually create something useful out of the present experience…and that’s totally in alignment with my goal of sharing useful strategies for getting better results.
Here, in somewhat random order, are my thoughts:
Acknowledge the enforced growth in your technology comfort zone.
So many areas are on actual or effective lock-down that many people are needing to figure out how to work from home. If Zoom and other tech tools are now part of your life when they hadn’t been before, look how much more versatile and skilled you’ll be as a result of the new social isolation.
See the situation as a way to build up some really good karma.
I just loved the story about a distillery in rural Pennsylvania that’s switching from producing alcoholic beverages to producing alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The huge demand meant they quickly ran out of bottles, but a woman who heard about their work stepped in to help: She donated several thousand bottles she had in storage from a previous venture. Best of all, the finished product is being given out at no charge.
Now, these people are doing this because they feel it’s the right thing to do. But that doesn’t mean they’re not also earning major cosmic brownie points in the process.
Bask in your enhanced productivity.
Depending on what source you use, you’ll see that employees waste anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours every day. Home-based entrepreneurs, of course, know that working in your personal space also offers massive opportunities to avoid work.
But when you’re avoiding social contact in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, that means that co-workers or networking colleagues aren’t going to be around to lure you off track. Think what you can do with more focused time!
Celebrate your boost in creativity.
Don’t want to meet in person for your regularly scheduled productivity session with fellow entrepreneurs? Then decide whether you want to have a Zoom session, post in a Facebook group, have hourly phone check-ins…If your old options are no longer safe, you’ll be inspired to look beyond the usual solutions for new ones.
Enjoy the benefits of increased self-care.
While panic-filled, gloom-and-doom attitudes are totally enervating, calm awareness of risks and rewards is empowering. Take the increased time at home to prepare and enjoy food that’s actually nutritious rather than processed. Give yourself permission to get more sleep. Counteract the negative effects of social isolation by using increased at-home time to reconnect (via phone, Zoom, FaceTime) with people you haven’t touched base with in too long.
Choose to focus on unexpected upsides.
With much of Italy on total lock-down, the waters of this country are taking advantage of the lack of traffic. The canal waters of Venice are actually clear; fish and swans are being seen in and on them. Ducks are showing up in Rome’s fountains, and dolphins are being seen along the coast. This is the result of just three weeks of non-pollution by humans. Wonder if we’ll choose to be careful once we’re back to “normal”?
What’s been your experience dealing with this modern pandemic? Are you finding ways to keep your spirits up? If you’ve found anything that’s working especially well for you, please be sure to share it below; we can all use the help.
(BTW, thanks to Christoph Scholz for the virus graphic; I found it in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.)
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