Lockdown Survival Guide
Going from Surviving to Thriving - Friday evening reflections
Gloria Gaynor may not have sung "I will survive" many moons ago with the pandemic and lockdowns in mind, but it rings true in today's world. As we headed into lockdown 6 in Melbourne, I was reminded of the term "languishing" that psychologist Adam Grant recently wrote about. He said that "a sense of stagnation and emptiness. While you're in this state, you may not see the point of things or anticipate any forward direction or fulfillment in your life. You're not necessarily feeling hopeless—just a bit 'blah'." He recommends setting goals and carving time out to achieve them, as well as avoiding frequent task switching such as avoiding checking your phone every few minutes.
I must admit that when I was a child and was thinking what I want to be when I grow up, I never thought I would replicate 'Bananas in Pajamas' one day, in wearing a formal jacket with pajama bottoms.
So here is my lockdown survival and thriving guide:
maintain your sense of wonder
set clear goals with the goal of making small acts towards that goal everyday or on a weekly basis
Pursue education
find a new hobby or learn a skill you have always wanted to try out
take stock of your life, see how you would like to change it, and establish new routines and hobbies so that you can maintain good habits when we are out of lockdown
learn how to be mindful.
Maintaining my sense of Wonder
I maintain my sense of wonder by learning about subjects I don't deal with on a day to day basis. Some of them are to do with subjects I liked in high school but did not pursue them as an adult or learning about finance.
On any day, there are free and paid festivals and knowledge sharing events happening all around the world.
This week both the "Melbourne International Film Festival" and "Indian Film Festival of Melbourne" are on, streaming online Australia wide. The Indian movies and documentaries are all free.
The National Science week is on this week with a lot of online sessions. My favourite science podcast at the moment is "Science Clear and Vivid" by actor Alan Alda.
Set Clear Goals
I did an ‘Acts of Confidence’ course recently where Kate Boorer and Fiona Pearman ask "What is one small act of confidence you can do this week?”. This is a great way of thinking in achieving our goals as the goal is not to achieve everything in one go, but to make few ‘confident’ steps towards achieving your goals.
Pursue Education
One of the benefits of the Internet age is that there are podcasts available for every subject. So if you want to pivot or see what is out there for you in the future, listen to a podcast in that subject and see if it really is an option for you.
There are many free education apps such as EdX which feature courses from reputable universities such as Harvard.
All libraries now provide free access to LinkedIn learning, such as the Melbourne library. Libraries are also good sources of books, movies and music, for both digital and physical copies.
Finding a New Hobby
While I have always cooked, I have never had enough time to learn new cooking skills and pursue complicated dishes. During the lockdown I was able to try new dishes, and plan the menu for the week. One of the skills I picked up was making multi-grain rotis by using pearl millet and plain flour. This is something I am very happy with.
Upskilling in other areas of my life were important as well. I try and listen to few different types of podcasts on a weekly basis. The Economists Editors Picks, WSJ Minute Briefing, Brene Brown's Unlocking Us and Being Unstoppable by Caralee Fontenele are some of my picks. I like the positive, can do attitude the last 2 podcasts offer, and all of us can do with more positive thinking in this day and age.
Taking Stock of my life
Recently I did an exercise where I pictured myself in 10 years time, looking back at the previous 10. This helped me focus and zone in on the goals I need to pursue from now on. Jennie Hill provided this great session for Mentor(SHE):.
One of my goals is my health. This for me means doing neck, back and strength exercises everyday. I am also eating much more healthily now.
The other goal is to improve my writing and pursue blogging while I get better at it.
But the most change for me is to live by my values. Few of my values are continuous learning, distributing my knowledge, ideation and making the world a better place by influencing positive change. They will drive my future pursuits in training individuals and groups, my writing and technology design and analysis.
I am getting involved in community groups that look at global problems and innovation. I think it is a time of great change, as much as we believe we are in stagnation.
What about you? What are you doing in this great unwinding? What changes are you bringing to your life?