Lockdown Side Effects, Not Only Daily Routines But The Ever So Important Family Gatherings. What We Can Do About It!
Part 4
Looking back on my last 30 or so years I, like most of us, have had some very happy times in my life and some not so happy times.
The happiest times in my life has always been when I had a lot of things to do that were activities of my own choosing. The more active I was and the more goals I was working on achieving the brighter my future looked. And this happiness and excitement drove me forward through the obstacles that I faced along the way.
The not so happy times in my life were always times where I let perceived failures or setbacks stop me from moving forward toward building a better future for myself. Whenever I went into “maintenance mode” and tried to just get through the day I often sunk further into my dissatisfaction with myself, withdrew from life a little more and found myself much less successful than when I was more active.
What I realized was that when I stopped challenging myself to be better, when I stopped setting new goals for myself that pushed me out of my comfort zone, the less excited I was about my future. As a result, I started looking at more things that brought me immediate gratification instead of looking ahead at what I wanted to create for myself and others.
My biggest takeaway from all of this is that my quality of life is self-regulated, and I have the ability to increase it if I choose to. All I need is to do the work today that will build a better tomorrow. Starting small and building on minor successes I will eventually find myself in a better position than I am in today. If I start feeling too much stress, I add additional outlets/activities that I enjoy that help to make me healthier, more alert and take my attention out of my head and put it back on the environment and on others. Personally, I have always found that physical activities and doing more to help others in a meaningful way have always been the best stress relievers that I have ever had.
The COVID lockdowns can be used as a motivational factor to finally take those steps you have been wanting to take but never seemed to find the time to do. You do not have to let the environment determine what your “new normal” will be, what your life will consist of and what you will be moving forward. This can be the now beginning you have hoped for. Take advantage of it and make the best out of it and before long you will be reaping the fruits of the work you put in today.
Best of luck and I hope you do well.