Get Ahead While Everyone Else Put Their Progress On Pause

In the spirit of Southwest Airlines slogan, "Want to get away?". I was thinking about this slogan, "Want to get ahead?" No better time to get ahead, than while everyone else is standing still waiting for this pandemic to be over.

I was talking to a friend of mine and as we talked he kept saying things like, we will wait and see, and until COVID is over, or when COVID is over. This is fine if you are talking about traveling overseas but the context of this conversation was about goals, achieving goals, and learning new skills. Many people have put their lives in a holding pattern during this pandemic. And while this is a worldwide problem that requires us to practice social distancing, hand washing, sheltering in place, it doesn't mean that we have to stop striving towards our goals.

Many people have gained weight, known as the COVID 15, while others have begun that exercise program they never had time to do before. Some have just gone into survival mode, shopping for food, and binging on Netflix while others are making big life decisions like moving to another state or country.

What are you not doing now during COVID that was taking all your time before? Many people have gained hours in their life from not needing to commute to the office. While I personally love to travel, I am not traveling during the pandemic. While this is a bummer, it has given me the time and focus to start on several projects that I just wouldn't tackle if I were traveling. 

For example, l have had a gym in my basement for 14 years. I have used it on and off over the years. During this pandemic, like many people, I set a goal to work out more. But I needed to find a time in my day that I could do consistently. I tried working out at 3:00pm. That didn't work. I tried 2:00pm. That didn't work. I tried 12:00pm. That didn't work. Finally, I moved it to 7:30am. Once deciding on that time which worked for me and my family, I haven't missed many work outs. I have increased my strength, lowered my resting heart rate, and lost about 15 lbs. 

My wife and I have been walking at lunchtime. We are both getting in better shape and it has improved our relationship. It's also good to get outside and away from the computer and Zoom calls for a little while. While I have made handmade pasta using a standard hand crank pasta machine since I was six, I decided that I was going to really step it up and learn how to make handmade strichetti, garganelli, papperdelle, tagliatelle and stuffed pastas like tortellini and balanzoni with nothing but a large rolling pin, called a mattarello, and my hands. To make it even more fun my daughter Amanda has decided she wants to learn as well. We love to cook and thought, what is one thing we could learn more about together. 

What can we control? Many people are spending too much physical and emotional energy on things they do not control. We can't control when the pandemic is over, but we can control what WE do while it is going on. What goals did you want to pursue before the pandemic hit? What goals would you like to pursue now? What skills would you like to improve or develop? How can you improve your life even if just a little bit?

If there is a skill you want to develop or learn something new, we still have Google, the library, YouTube, and Amazon. There are many online platforms for courses to help us learn and improve like Masterclass, Udemy, and Coursera. 

Let's take this opportunity. While others are standing around, staring, waiting and wondering what is happening or when will this be over. We will be moving forward, learning, improving and growing. So let's go after that goal that we didn't have time to tackle before. Learn that new skill that we keep telling ourselves that we will learn some day. That day could be today. We are control of our own lives. Now is the time to take action.

The bottom line is whatever we want to improve in our life takes time and attention. Let's make the decision, carve out the time in our schedules, take control, make a plan, and make it happen.