We have all heard this quote many times. Never has it meant so much to me as it has in the past six weeks!

One of the biggest lessons that I am taking from this period of self-isolation is that going forward I am going to do things, get things done when I have the opportunity. 

Why did I procrastinate getting my hair done? Now the salons are closed and it’s going to be months before I can get another appointment. Why didn’t I get things done around the house while contractors were still working? This one is key when you are trying to sell your house through all of this! Why didn’t I go to the dentist, especially after they called… for the third time! Why didn’t I keep a stash of toilet paper at home before everyone started hoarding it? Ok, that last one is a joke, but living through this period where only essential businesses are open has made me realize that being prepared is actually really important. I think many people who are experiencing this will, for years to come, appreciate the things that we have immediate access to that much more. I think (hope) we will take less for granted.

When presented with opportunities we often say, not this year, maybe we’ll do it next year. But as my coach often says, “Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not promised”. There are obviously other factors – mainly money – that prevent us from doing everything now but I think in many cases we put things off thinking we have all the time in the world, or that we will always have the ability to do things.

Last year at this time our family was getting ready to fly to Europe. In 2019 we planned a family cruise for our parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. The thing is their anniversary isn’t until September 2020. The decision was made primarily around my nephews’ busy schedule. As it turns out, it was a great decision and I am extremely grateful that we went a year early. Had we planned to go in May 2020 instead of May 2019 the trip would have been cancelled. It was an amazing family trip that we are fortunate to have experienced together.

I will think of these times in the future when I want to procrastinate doing something, when words come out of my mouth like – I’ll do it later, tomorrow, next year. I will remember these months that we are living now, when later, tomorrow or next week aren’t options.

As we continue into another week (month) of self-isolation I am focusing on controlling what I can control. It is very easy to get caught up in feelings of frustration, anger, fear of the virus, the uncertainty, the state of small businesses. As these feelings start to surface, I am stopping myself. I can’t control what the government is mandating, what new rules are in place this week or how other people are reacting. I think it’s this last one that I struggle with the most. When people are scared they react, often in negative ways. This has been very upsetting to me, but I decided to start focusing on what I can control. 

I can control how often I workout, I can control what I am eating (although sometimes this one feels a little out of control!), I can control how I spend my time, I can control getting enough sleep and I can control how I react to other people’s comments and actions. To emphasize that – I can’t control the comments and actions of others but I CAN control how I respond to them.

A good friend of mine regularly says “Love is always the answer”. Rather than starting an argument, or giving in to the negativity – I choose love. I change the subject, I choose to talk about something positive, I remind myself that their comments are made out of fear. What we need now, more than ever is to support and love one another. We don’t need to shame people for their decisions, we need to focus on controlling our own life. Eating good foods, exercising regularly, getting outside for walks, doing things that are good for our mental health. For me that means doing puzzles, reading and talking to friends and family. I maintain my daily routine as much as I can. I still get up at 5am to do morning time. I don’t need to get up that early right now but I know when I do this my day goes much better than when I don’t. 

We purchased a new house back in February and listed our current house the day that non-essential businesses were forced to close. How’s that for timing! I can’t control that the real estate market came to a screeching halt. I could have gotten upset about it, I could have been very angry but I chose to pray on it and put things in place with the expectation that it wouldn’t sell as quickly as I had anticipated. Getting angry isn’t going to change anything and it’s certainly not going to make the house sell any faster. So I chose to control what I could control and create an alternate plan.

When we first started self-isolation, a friend sent me this list of Daily Quarantine Questions. I have been doing this every morning and I it holds me accountable to move my body everyday, check in with people, let go of unrealistic expectation and get through this period of time in the best way that I can.

I was reminded recently that I should start writing again. More now than ever, people need to read positive messages. 

In this time of non-essential businesses being closed, being isolated from our family and friends and being exposed to so much fear-based messaging it is so easy, it is the default, to have negative thoughts. Worry and fear can consume us. The first few days of self-isolation I was very upset. I cried multiple times a day. I was scared and I didn’t know what to do, the uncertainty was overwhelming. I had conversations with friends and realized that this needed to change. 

I limited my social media time, I started watching videos with positive messages (like Message of Hope from Dave Ramsey https://youtu.be/z2Bq7gcB35M) and I started to focus on what I could take away from this time.

What I started to see, is that this is a time of huge opportunity. Over the years I have talked to a lot of people about their dreams and goals and when asked why they haven’t worked towards them, the resounding answer is – I don’t have enough time. We are in a strange time where we have nowhere to go and for most of us, we have more free time. 

I truly believe that coming out of this, things are going to grow fast. Having this time is a huge opportunity to get a solid foundation set to be ready for growth. I don’t want to be sitting here a year from now thinking I should have done this or that while we were self isolating and I had the time. Everyday I am focusing on something that I can get done now, so that when businesses reopen, we can travel again and we are able to be with our loved ones I am ready for whatever our new normal will be. 

I am taking online courses that I had the best of intentions of getting to but couldn’t make the time for, I am reading the pile of books that I really want to read but haven’t gotten to, I am cleaning up by inbox – which has been on my list for years and we are planning vacations that we don’t when we will be able to take, but we will be ready when we can. And one of the key things we are looking at is understanding how to get things done in a different way. In our business most of our team works remotely on a regular basis so we are fortunate that this wasn’t a huge disruption for us. That being said there are still areas that we are reliant on a physical location. This is an opening for us to further make improvements in the way that we do business. Our team is working on projects that will help us scale and grow, doing things that we were never able to get to before.

Everyone is in a different situation and what is working for me isn’t necessarily what will work for you, but there is certainly the opportunity for everyone to look at the fact that things have changed and how you can use that to your benefit.

Please don’t read this and think that I’m not worried, scared and sad. I am worried what this isolation is going to do people’s mental health, I am scared of the damage that these shutdowns will do to our economy long-term and I am sad that I can’t hug my family and friends. And while I have all of these feelings everyday, I try not to focus on them. I choose to focus on Hope.

In this stormy season of our civilization, it is essential to shift from victimhood to leadership. To lead is to free yourself from excuses, protect your positive focus and raise the spirits of all around you. ~ Robin Sharma (excerpt from The War Measures Manual by Robin Sharma )