Who Will You Be After the Coronapocalypse?
By: The Good Men Project
Tags: Coronavirus, Pandemic, Change Your Life, Covid 19, Advice

Who Will You Be After the Coronapocalypse?

It’s the set of the sail that determines your destination.

Photo credit: iStock

By Adrian Shepherd

We are all in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Yes, I do really mean that. It’s an opportunity. Sure, none of us want to be under lockdown, but that’s beyond my paygrade. It is what it is. So rather than focus on what I don’t have, I focus on what I have. And what we all have is time.

Each day COVID-19 (aka the Wuhan virus) seems to get a little closer. A little more real. But, as I’ve said before, this too shall pass. When it does, we need to answer one very important question — “Who will you be after the coronapocalpse?”

None of us will be the same people we were before the quarantines. You can’t completely change people’s lives from their eating habits to their social activities to their workout and expect that nothing will happen. People will go in one of two directions — down or up. I intend to be the latter.

As the corona fog clears, there will be those who will go back to life as normal, but most people won’t. Gatherings will be especially fraught. I personally don’t want to go sporting events, movie theaters or malls until I know we’ve got this all under control. Hook-ups will go back to some sort of norm because that’s what makes us human, but the fear factor will be there. In China,as people emerged from their houses, divorces jumped up. I expect the same here and all over the world.

Under normal circumstances, e have any number of regular activities. Take my typical week. Before this all happened, my week consisted of work, home, the supermarket, Aikido, swimming school, lunch alone five days a week, dinner out with colleagues, two trips to the big city and some bits and pieces here and there. Now, I’ve got work, home, and the supermarket, and, if I’m lucky, lunch out twice a week. There’s very little stress relief. People have turned to video games to kill time. People are adapting.

Then we’ve got the governments coming to the rescue and doling out cash to both businesses and individuals. It’s the right thing to do, but one thing most people have never bothered to ask is where are they going to get all this cash? It’s not like they have this giant safe that they open up for emergencies. Nope, they’re creating it. The US government alone has allocated $6 trillion for this crisis. Out of thin air. That’s got “danger” written all over it. At first, the effects will be a lief, but having studied economics for two hours a day for four years after Lehman Shock, I can tell you that there will be consequences.

I can’t say what will change or how, but I can say things will change.

I’m reminded of what Jim Rohn use to say in his lectures, “It’s not the blowing of the wind that determines our destination, it’s the set of the sail.” Out there, the coronavirus, I have little control over. I simply take precautions as best I can. But what I do have is control over myself. I control my sails. That’s why ever since the lockdown, I’ve

1. Started exercising more.

2. Been on a guest on a few podcasts.

3. Worked with my son on his reading.

4. Written numerous articles.

5. Fixed my website.

6. Cleaned the house.

7. Read a few books.

8. Tested out my new lens.

9. Studied some magic.

I’m not sure how long we’ll be in this situation. I was shocked to learn that Oregon and Illinois have canceled school for 2020. Thailand has canceled school till July. Life is supposed to get back to normal here on May 6th, but I don’t see that happening. I’m thinking June or July before life can get back to some sort of normalcy. It seems that once society has locked down for two months, that it’s possible to a handle on this virus. But who knows?

I just know that it will be over. Hopefully, in a year’s time, we’ll all be back to complaining about the traffic, the weather, our bosses, the slow service at a restaurant, all the usual crap. COVID-19, the coronavirus or whatever you want to call it will be a memory, but who you will be, that depends on you. So ask yourself, who will I be after the coronapocalypse?

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The story was previously published on The Good Men Project.