Look, I get it.
This year has felt like a decade in many ways to me, too.
Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s tragic deaths and the terrible fires in Australia were but an opening act for the worst health crisis – at least in the United States – in 100 years. A virus and pandemic that has had so many head-spinning twists and turns at every level and from every angle that it’s truly felt like we’re living in a science fiction movie.
Then, the massive George Floyd protests with some groups of people turning to violence or outright rioting, and looters using the protests as cover for mayhem at times made the sky feel like it really was falling – one day in particular in my Hollywood neighborhood, the sound of sirens and helicopters was non-stop on our block for at least 13 hours straight. Without detailing all the drama on my street that day, it felt like getting a little taste of living in the middle of an Orwellian martial law scene…or just a plain warzone.
2020 is Doing Too Much!
Head-spinning, endless, political and election drama and twists and turns in the US that continue as I write this, the U.S. President contracting Covid-19 and being hospitalized…days after the most embarrassing presidential “debate” – if you can even call it that – in U.S. history. More division than most of us have ever seen.
What else? The government admitted alien-type, known-physics-defying UFOs do exist. The devastating explosion in Beirut, the stock market, California fires…the list goes on. And on.
And, obviously, all the very real, visceral impacts of the pandemic on your daily life.
I’m extremely fortunate to still have a job and paycheck even though we’ve had to reschedule months of events. I’m grateful that I’ve stayed healthy, I haven’t lost anyone to the pandemic, and that I’ve been relatively insulated from the at-times grisly realities – and getting through the not-at-all asymptomatic infections healthcare workers in my life and all over the world are dealing with.
At the beginning though, I won’t lie, I was really scared.
Scared for myself – especially when some young, seemingly healthy Covid patients were having freak strokes (I had two somewhat unexplained strokes as a toddler), scared for my Mom, scared for the healthcare workers I know and their families. And angry at many people.
Angry and sad, too, that – after finally facing a level of insecurities and demons I’d previously run from for years – 2020 had been shaping up to be the best year yet of my dating life only to have that all stalled, with multiple potential relationships I’d been really excited about either slipping through my fingers or put on indefinite pause.
Beating myself up as a man – and an aspiring coach for this company – for even having all these emotions and fears.
But what got me through it all much quicker and stronger on the other side than I ever would’ve a few – maybe even one or two – years earlier was everything we teach, the support group of alumni I’m close to and the rest of our coaches, and other friends I’d picked up throughout my personal development journey.
Pessimism Everywhere
I had to sit on my hands in the early months of the pandemic as I watched a slew of “Life is terrible and I’m just gonna binge eat/drink/Netflix my way through this terrible year. Life is canceled,” posts fill up my feeds.
I put a lot of that energy into home workouts – arduous and frustrating at first without fancy gym equipment and with the extra challenges of the limitations of my disability…but very productive, nonetheless, and cathartic a.f. – processing my emotions, and growing my role as a coach with all the extra free content we were putting out for people.
I even mostly liked that sports weren’t on TV and socializing wasn’t a thing (though I do have roommates, at least)…more time (and less FOMO) to put my all into making sure the no-gym thing didn’t slow down either side (fully functional/weak) of my body’s growth too much!
But everyone deals with strife and grief differently, I had to remind myself as I scrolled through all the doom and gloom posts on Facebook and IG.
But guys, it’s almost November.
And I still see a lot of you – even clients of ours who have been taught better – posting about how they can’t wait for this year to be over.
Newsflash: The New Year’s Eve ball isn’t going to drop on Miss ‘Rona and end the pandemic.
Or instantly solve any of the other extended challenges we’re dealing with.
Folks, we’re gonna be in this to one degree or another for a while.
And if you’re banking your happiness on 2021 being back to normal in January or February, you’re almost certainly in for months – possibly even a year – of frustration and disappointment.
You can make the best of life as it is right now and move forward in the face of constantly being out of your comfort zone – as we are as a company, as many of our clients are with us, as I am – with good days and weeks and tougher ones, of course – or you can keep fighting against the situation we’re in…and putting life on hold. Putting growth on hold. Putting enjoying what you’ve got and the opportunities you have right now on hold.
We all have different challenges and comfort levels around the pandemic. There are certainly still aspects of my life that aren’t feasible or worth it to me right now, but there’s always a way to make the best of what is, get creative and determined, accept all the challenges as an opportunity to come out of this a stronger, happier, more successful person and more solid man – or woman – for the rest of your life.
How do you want to look at the phase of the cycle that we’re in?
Source: ldrbyks on Steemit
