3 Years Later

Do you remember where you were when the world changed? I bet you do. Me? I was at my company office in Downtown Boston. It was nearing the end of the day, and the news of a local Biotech company’s conference having an outbreak was spreading through socials and people in the city (word gets around fast these days). March 11th, 2020, we packed up our stuff to work from home for 2 weeks….

3 years later, I am not expecting to see the inside of an office anytime soon. I still have PTSD when I hear; “uncertainty, “the new normal,” and “unprecedented times.” I work in a t-shirt and leggings every day, while usually having a leave-in conditioner in my hair, and work longer hours than I ever expected most days because… well, my office is only steps away while work is ever-changing (if you work in tech, you get it, agile and all that).

But trauma still lingers in our bodies and conversations as we have grown accustomed to constant stressors entirely out of our control. But what if, as an entire world, we were forced to reflect and make more profound changes to our mental fitness, physical health, and personal life goals? Here is what 3 years and counting of utter chaos has taught me.

We’ll figure it out.

I say this a lot for someone who has zero idea if we will figure it out. But you know what being forced into these fast-paced changes while trying to keep sane has taught me? We always figure it out. Work, health, relationships, just life…here we are, figuring it out, and look at us go! When things get hard, I have made this my mantra; and that mantra has brought me to do some big scary things.

Adapt instead of forcing.

I was a rigid type-a scheduled person. In reality, it was an addiction; if I missed a step in my ridged schedule, the whole day, week, and few weeks, would tumble down and kick start the downward spiral. Being strict kept me in control, kept me ahead… kept me… uhhh, winning? Until my schedule was impossible to keep; gyms were closed, and life shut down, how would I keep my routine in this? Spoiler alert; I’m not. So I learned how to do what I can with what I have. The more I practiced and let go, the easier it became to keep to my lifestyle without forcing it and beating myself up to maintain a lifestyle…. You following me here? The more it became a lifestyle and not a job, the easier it was to keep because I liked it more. Go figure.

Block out the noise.

Finance online reported that 1.145 trillion MB of data was created daily in 2020. That number is rising yearly as more information is being put online at a growing pace. What does this mean for us? We have to set some mental filters. After the 4th month of not knowing what was going on and seeing contradicting information on just about everything…it was time to figure out my information sources and what to ignore. This skill isn’t only applicable when the world is a dumpster fire; oh hell no, it’s for life! Block out the noise and focus on you.

Stop doing the unnecessary.

Activities, events, people, if you aren’t thrilled to spend time doing things or hanging with those people, stop doing it. When our social circle shrunk to our immediate circle, we learned fast we don’t need a huge group to have happiness; I only do the things I REALLY want to do with the people who bring me absolute joy. This frees me up to; better myself, listen to books, work out more, get more sleep, and catch up on shows. You name it; spending time with myself and a smaller circle of people has helped me live a life I truly enjoy.

Life is going to throw you curveballs over and over. We can try to get through them with our sanity intact. Looking back over the last few years, did you beat the pandemic? Or did you let the pandemic steamroll you? It’s not too late to make a change and start thriving.