Will COVID-19 challenge you?
Quarantine will be over soon, but that doesn’t mean 2020 is over.
It’s just incredible how the world and its different governments, are in constantly changes. Most of them often provoked by political decisions, where we generally see them develop slowly, but now they seem to be getting real all at once. Big changes are happening. Not precisely seen by us at this moment, as I said, but we starting to feel them in some way, and they are more certainly about to be real once the quarantine is over. 2020 year seems to be one of the most iconic years for the whole of humanity in a long time, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yes, this year you said, like every year, would be ¨your year¨. However, at this point, it may not feel like your year, and I’m sorry about that, because it was supposed to be my year too. Despite the unexpected turn in events, we can see the positive side of this. Einstein once said, the crisis is the greatest blessing for people and nations, because the crisis brings progress. Creativity comes from anxiety as the day comes from the dark night. I am sure we will do different things obligatory or not, and things will change and thank god for that.
Economic crisis has hit not only the high-class businessmen but the poorest ones who live day-to-day too. The ¨good¨ health services in first and medium world countries proved that they are not good enough. I’m not talking about the privileged private health sector, which has limited access, but the public sector obviously, which has been affected more than ever.
The practice of social distancing, a concept we are not used to, the one we are experiencing right now in our country Mexico, is also another unexpected lifestyle change. It is, by the way, very hard to accomplish for so many reasons, including within our educational system, but we are not going to talk about that this time. Another thing, it seems like our advanced technology has reached new levels. Even the religious sector is surprised that we have reached the point of cancelling masses. I mean, who expected all this? Have you seen how the animals are recovering their territories? It’s amazing watching the penguins walking in Cape Town’s empty streets in South Africa, whales playing and swimming near the coasts of Acapulco, here in Mexico, or jellyfish in venetian canals. These are just some examples how changes are visible to all.
Left, center or right-wing governments were punched by an unknown virus and they are acting the way they wanted, the way they think is the best for their people. All of this, is changing the future for everybody, good or bad. Even not acting quickly, or doing nothing, will affect us tremendously, it doesn’t matter. We see that acting in accordance to the way WHO* indicates, isn’t even good enough. Most of us know how efficient and effective our government is, because we see our surroundings. I’m not going to judge yours or mine, and I am not going to write technical synopsis about the infected people, like how many are recovered, the symptoms, how to stop spreading the virus, about how or if the curve is getting flattened day by day, or how many hospitals and reconverted places we all have. That’s because we all that information handy on the internet, well not all people and it is good to mention, most of do. However, I’m not an expert, I’m not a doctor, but what I am trying to say is that I am just a common human, anxious about what’s coming to us in the short future and for that reason, I incite you to challenge yourself, and I would like you to reflect on our situations.
*World Health Organization
I am not saying that you should start an online course, learn to play an instrument, read a couple of books, or learn something literally or intentionally. These are all good things to do, but let me tell you one thing, you will be learning even if you don’t want to. Because the simple fact of living through something that have never experienced is learning my friend. The funny thing about staying at home is that once we are back to our streets, back to office, back to the things we were doing, we will be more courageous, open minded, vital, initiator/innovator, and decisive. Oh, that’s what I believe COVID actually stands for. Why do I think so? Let’s take a look.
C stands for Courageous. Because is the most important value we will have of all values, and you need a little push to do things, new things maybe. It helps us face new difficulties, danger, pain, etc., without fear of the future. Even after getting infected with this virus.
O stands for Open minded. Because being open minded help us to grow and learn. It helps us accept things hard to accept, other realities other than ours. We will become more empathetic and find coincidences more easily.
V stands for Vitality. This brings us a sense of meaning and purpose behind our actions. We will become more energetic. We are, after all, alive. We need to appreciate the fact that life expectancy is increasing world-wide.
I stands for Initiator or Innovator. I believe staying at home makes us more proactive. We think of new ideas, and new things to do. We realize our role to fulfill more needs in the changing society.
D stands for Decisive. We are learning how to be decisive. It is an essential skill that influences our success and the community’s success. Making decisions rapidly helps us to reduce procrastination, so that we become more productive and organized. Decisiveness gives us a greater peace of mind by eliminating anxiety, and improving our confidence.
You catch the idea now? We constantly say change is good, and so hopefully this 360 turn in world events, in all these sectors I mentioned above, will cause positive change. The few examples I mentioned and with luck in the government, will cause positive adjustments for the public budget in the health sector, water sector, etc. The hygiene departments will hopefully improve their regulations on the established markets of live animals, and we will be more aware of nature, and clean energies, and so on. I also hope recent events will promote more efforts within the public education sector, which is important too. Right now, we don’t know how many people are making important decisions that not only will affect their lives, but ours as well.
We need to take time for deep reflection on what things we need to change, not only automatically, but the hard ones too. Do you think just living in lockdown will change yourself? Yes, I believe it will. We will be different, so challenge yourself and be part of it.