Life after COVID-19: Renewal
For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic put life on hold so to speak. Given the mass vaccination programs now evolving, there is cautious optimism that the end of the pandemic appears to be on the horizon. As such, it is a great time to take stock of one’s life situation and plan your future.
LIFE PUT ON HOLD
Because of the pandemic, normal routines, plans and activities were obviously halted, delayed and/or cancelled altogether. Lockdowns and travel restrictions greatly limited peoples’ ability to freely move about, connect with others and pursue things that brought them pleasure. For many, it’s felt as though we lost an entire year (and counting) of living. As such, it may be a great time to reflect on all the things you haven’t had a chance to do and missed out on, because of the pandemic.
As the world transitions out of the COVID-19 pandemic, on an individual level, it is an ideal time and opportunity to re-evaluate ourselves, our lives and where we want to go from here. Although the future is always uncertain, now is still a wonderful moment in time to plan out a roadmap ahead for your life. With a generational world altering event seemingly fading soon, this is a great opportunity to seek renewal. A few broad areas of our lives that we might benefit from redefining include relationships, work, living arrangements, health and fitness and travel.
TAKING STOCK
I think it’s incredibly valuable to take a pause and make an honest assessment of the various facets of our lives, on occasion. One silver lining of COVID-19 may have been the gift of time and stillness many people were forced to deal with. In the earliest phase of the pandemic, it almost felt as if the world had come to a standstill. We collectively had a lot of time to think. The normal day-to-day grind gave way to a paradoxically eery calm and anxiety. With vaccine roll-outs now easing some of the anxiety, here are some broad areas of life that one could benefit from asking some questions around and evaluating.
RELATIONSHIPS
- Do you need to seek counselling to heal a strained or broken relationship?
- Is it time to move on from someone? You need to do an honest assessment.
- What actions can you now take to find a suitable partner? This is especially pertinent for those single people who have struggled to date or meet people safely because of the novel coronavirus.
- What can you do to heal a fractured relationship with a family member or friend?
- With lost face-to-face contact, many friendships or relationships felt as though they dimmed to an extent. Who do you want to prioritize to reconnect with in person? Take the first step and reach out to make plans. The person/s that you identify are a clear revelation of who you value most in your life. Put your time and energy into these people.
WORK
- How were you treated by your employer during the pandemic?
- Was your employer flexible around things like child-care or elder-care needs?
- Did your employer show concern for and respect your health and safety at work? Did they check-in on employee mental health and offer support? Answers to these questions might be an important indicator on how valued workers are at this workplace.
- Are you enjoying your job or at least able to tolerate it? If you hate your job, it’s time to start exploring your options. With the reopening of the economy comes the opportunity to change jobs.
- I would expect labour mobility to increase as anxiety eases around job security and people pursue a better fit. It is understandable that people wanted to hold onto their jobs at a time when there has recently been mass layoffs. But staying in a job that you are miserable in, is not tenable in the long-term. As such, start shifting your vision to where you’d rather be and plant the seeds of future movement now. This might mean upgrading skills , updating a resumé or taking courses.
Small business owners…
- Is your business still viable as a going-concern? Can you realistically sustain yourself and recover from sizeable losses you may have incurred as a result of the pandemic?
- Life-savings and dreams are encapsulated in so many small businesses. As hard as it may be, it’s time to make an honest assessment on your future prospects.
PLACE OF LIVING
One phenomena of COVID-19 in many countries has been a flight from cities to suburbs or more rural areas. This is naturally due to people seeking refuge from crowded and congested places, namely dense cities. Making such a move was a viable option for those workers in particular, who had the option to switch to remote working. However, I expect that cities will revive in time as the pandemic slowly fades into the rear-view mirror. For others, perhaps moving was not an option at all, for different reasons.
Nonetheless, it is imperative that one assess their current living arrangement and find the best fit, moving forward. Maybe it’s time to downsize, upsize or right size. Perhaps it’s time to change who we live with or even the town or city we reside in. Some questions worth considering:
- Would you benefit from moving?
- Do you need more space or less space?
- Is your location suitable in terms of commuting and access to the amenities you most benefit from?
- Will remote working or a hybrid model allow you to live further from your workplace, over the long-term?
- Would it be helpful to move closer to loved ones, such as parents? Maybe the parents need help due to health reasons, or conversely, could help you with things like child care?
- Would the care of elderly parents be easier by living together in a multi-generational household?
- Do you need a new roommate/s or maybe none at all? Did the pandemic reveal incompatibility with your current living mates? Maybe who you live with needs to change.
HEALTH & FITNESS
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we should never take our health for granted. For without it, life can be very harsh and unkind. As such, we must make our best effort to enhance and maintain our physical and mental well-being. To state the obvious, this means eating right, exercising regularly and resting well.
Some were able to enhance their exercise routines at home and eat better, with more free time. I commend such dedicated souls. However, I suspect that for many more of us, our exercise routines and eating habits probably took a decline because of lockdowns and related restrictions. Normal routines were thrown off for most and resulted in a lack of motivation toward exercise. A lot of people, who are honest with themselves, would admit that they simply lost their positive momentum in life and fell into a rut.
Feeling tired, run-down, mentally exhausted, anxious and just generally suffering from “COVID fatigue” has been a reality for many people during the pandemic. Indeed, indulging in comfort food and drink was perhaps a very common coping mechanism for the majority of people. But now is the time to ease away from our more negative health habits.
Identify the small daily actions that you can take to incrementally improve your health. Day-by-day, resolve to eat healthier and more nutritious foods. Move more and sit less. Stare into screens less and rest or sleep more. Find balance again to gain your energy back.
RENEWAL
It is fitting that we are entering spring and exiting the pandemic at around the same time here in the northern hemisphere. I associate spring with renewal. It is a metaphor for how we are emerging out of the cold, dark and dreary days of a pandemic winter. There is hope of brighter and warmer days ahead with the arrival of spring. Nothing could be more welcome than that in the spring of 2021.
The topics I’ve touched on above are often the broad areas of our life that shape our days and give purpose to them. We’ve been reminded by the dreaded novel coronavirus of the fragility of human health and well-being. Sadly, we may know of people who contracted COVID-19 and even worse, succumbed to it.
The human species is vulnerable to disease, not just COVID. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves to be our best versions of who we aspire to be and how we want to live our best lives. Life is short, live it to the fullest, is the old maxim. COVID-19 is a stark reinforcer of this statement.
We should not take our time for granted. Let us live authentically, everyday, in a way that is true to who we are as individuals. Our daily thoughts and actions should be steering us in the direction of greater happiness and contentment.
Take time out to plot the things you would like to do and where you would like to be. Using a time frame of say 12–24 months, take the steps needed to steer the ship that is your life, gradually, in the direction of your goals. You are the captain of your life after all.
Seize each day and live it to the fullest. We only get this one life; we should strive to make it our best one. Do good. Be good.
It is time for RENEWAL.