Tag Archives: lockdown

Here we go again? GREAT!!

23 Wednesday Sep 2020

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Here we go again? GREAT!!

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

What have you achieved during the ‘first’ COVID Lockdown period?

How you define ‘achievements’ in the question I leave up to you. You may choose work-related successes, which will include how you adapted your working practices to address the restrictions and the (yuk) New Normal; you can list any charity or community efforts you undertook; you can rattle through the personal development you made.

Or.

You can consider the lack of initiative you might have displayed in any or all of those areas. You can now consider what you could have done. You can think ‘I could’ve’ (not could OF) and ‘I should’ve’ and ‘I might’ve’. And you can wallow in the self-pity that ensues if you did nothing to take advantage of the developmental opportunity that this pause could have provided.

But GREAT NEWS!

In my area, several local authorities have been re-locked down. (In fact, Cardiff is technically under siege as it is surrounded by locked down unitary authorities.) There are constant rumours, even expectations that another national lockdown is a-coming our way. A second pause-button that you can press and decide ‘What can I do in this period of change?’

I’m lucky. I have no formal occupation other than writing and blogging so I had massive amounts of discretionary time. Oddly, I still have a 9-5 mentality and regularly ‘pack in’ at tea-time. Weird.

But in the period since March I have:

  • Lost 35lbs.
  • Increased my cycling – time and distances travelled.
  • Attended umpteen free webinars to stay on top of my game.
  • Sorted out some home-environments.
  • Written The Way.
  • Edited Three Resolutions. (Okay, I finished that just before it started but it needed a proof read.)
  • Rewritten Police Time Management (still doing that).
  • Had two mini-breaks with the extended family during the eased-off hiatus in the Pandemic Panic.
  • Refocused my mind.

And here we find ourselves at the cusp of another, allegedly 6-month lockdown opportunity.

The Three Resolutions ‘commitments’ provide a framework for consideration of exactly what you can do to take advantage of the gap. You can reinforce your self-discipline by choosing to eat less and exercise more. You can redefine your personal values and your congruence or incongruence in terms of how you behave in their respect. You can learn new stuff, or you can study the old stuff you need to know in order to do an excellent job. You can revisit your sense of Purpose and decide if what you are doing is right for you, while simultaneously considering what service, or what better service you can provide to others – either through work or in a voluntary capacity.

Or you can just accept the entropy that doing nothing engenders. You can actively pursue the self-redundancy that ‘just doing enough’ causes.

Which is the right choice? You KNOW it.

Now DO it.

You could have a D-Ream….

30 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in General, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on You could have a D-Ream….

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Jim Rohn said that the seasons show us how to live. Whenever winter comes along, spring isn’t far behind. There’s no question we’re in winter at the moment.

The Seventh Habit is Sharpen the Saw. It reflects the eternal, universal, self-evident principle of Renewal. Which is what winter, in a sense, represents in as far as the earth remains fallow and renews in preparation for the rebirth of nature.

So let’s learn nature’s lesson and use this winter as an opportunity to renew ourselves in the four dimensions.

Physical – the government has permitted us to leave the house to exercise once a day, but there is no obligation to use a long walk to get sweaty. You can climb the stairs twenty times to get that result! You can do press-ups, sit-ups or other ‘free’ exercise within the walls of your abode and use the walk ‘opportunity’ for another reason – see below.

Mental – there were some students on the news this morning, asking what they should do during the lockdown. Here’s a thought – STUDY! You’ve paid huge sums of money for an education, enhance and supplement what you’ve learned by renewing your knowledge – revise, research, and apply your mind to enhancing that knowledge in a practical sense. Professionals do that all the time – is your degree aimed towards a profession?

Social – bit of an issue with that one, I grant you. But Skyping seems to be the in-thing, or meeting using Zoom (not done that yet), so there is every chance to relate to other people from your cell, if you want to. Or you can re-engage with your spouse. If you have to.

Spiritual – this confinement is something experienced by many greats over time. Mandela, Sadat, Gandhi – all used isolation as an opportunity to reconnect to their purpose. For them, their confinement was not voluntary and was a little bit more, er, pressurised than ours. But they used it as an opportunity for self-discovery. You can use it as an opportunity for that, or to re-assess what it is you are for.

There is no need to watch as much TV as is available. If you missed The Battle of the Bulge yesterday it’ll be on again tomorrow – it’s THE most transmitted war film of 2019-2020. Everything on in the week is repeated at the weekend. I am conscious that knowing this indicates I watch too much TV. Ouch.

Take advantage of this lull in the 8-4. You need to fill your time productively but you can use your creative imagination and independent will to do something you’ve been avoiding for years, like train for a half-marathon. (Baby steps.)

If things can get worse, we can it least we can follow D-Ream’s advice – and make ourselves get better.

Stretch yourself – be like Pregnancy Pants.

27 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by in Character and Competence, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Stretch yourself – be like Pregnancy Pants.

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

“Sometimes things can go right only by first going very wrong.” Edward Tenner

And here we are. We exist at a time where the whole world has come to a grinding crawl, with the retail and hospitality industries taking a big hit. Which means that we, the citizens, denied our access to the dopamine of retail therapy and the opportunity to get away from it all suddenly find we have to find some other way of feeling good and ‘finding ourselves’.

Charles R Hobbs, of the original, non-Brian Tracy title TimePower, observed that when we go on holiday, the first thing we do on arrival is recreate the Comfort Zone that is home. First, we check the TV channels, and then we find out the wi-fi password. Is he right? Be honest.

Today, the comfort zones of shopping and the workplace have been denied to many, and to be fair that has resulted in a lot of imagination being utilised to cope with new challenges, which is arguably Mankind’s greatest skill. And as one esteemed philosopher put it, Mankind’s development has been the result of Challenge – Response.

The Challenge today is how to live in a confined space and feel happy, secure and productive for the period of the Lockdown. Of course, the nature of this lockdown is, shall we say, a bit like pregnancy trousers – there’s a bit of leeway that will expand and contract as needs demand.

Notwithstanding the ability or otherwise to do your paid work, we have a twenty-day window to:

  • Discover Kindle e-books, which can be in your lap in seconds and can feed your mind on a subject of interest to you.
  • Access on-line courses which can make you more employable.
  • Do all those jobs around the house that have needed doing. (My kitchen FINALLY looks organised.)
  • Talk to your partner and kids.
  • And your neighbours, whether they work for the NHS or not.
  • Telephone friends, neighbours and workmates using those unlimited minutes you’ve paid for.
  • (Personal favourite) Study The Seven Habits, First Things First and Principle-Centred Leadership and discover new ways of thinking – how to think, not what to think – an important distinction. All available on Kindle and, if you’re clever, very cheaply.
  • Read my blogs more often.

All of the above ideas, and any you can discover for yourself, will mean that you come out of the other side of this a better person, more organised, and possibly even more productive than before.

But, above all, doing something like those things will absolutely, unarguably and without fail MASSIVELY increase your sense of self-esteem – the value you place on yourself.

Go on – don’t just be a public hero like everyone else. Stretch yourself.

Win a Private Victory as well.

Character, Character, Character – and Standards. Now, more than since 1945.

24 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Character and Competence, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Character, Character, Character – and Standards. Now, more than since 1945.

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

The lockdown of 2020 has begun. Not since 1939 has anything like this been asked of the citizenry of the UK. That year, 40-odd million citizens did right by their country and their fellow Brits by complying with and trusting the advice and orders of those we elected to deal with exactly this kind of situation.

And a few thousand or so took advantage. Spivs, we called them. We decried their disobedience to the rule of law. And then we bought eggs off them.

We find ourselves in the middle of a truly extraordinary – for us – series of events. Which means we are now being called upon to demonstrate more character, as a people, than we have for quite some time.

Now we can stand up, or we can fall down.

It grieves me to say this, but the nature of televisual celebrity suggests that this might not happen. The young of today, fed as they are by the ‘me’ cult of the Kardashians and Made in Chelsea, will either act true to expectations and, as the evidence so far suggests, stamp their feet and demand their rights to do what they please regardless of the truth of principled living.

Or they may surprise us and show the kind of character that the youth of 1939 demonstrated when they knuckled down, volunteered, fought and died in defence of what had gone before.

Note that – they had a life, and Hitler interrupted it. They accepted that intrusion and a nation rose up to the challenge.

We had a life yesterday, and a virus has interrupted it.

I am calling upon everyone to demonstrate the same levels of character that were displayed then, by people just like us who had loved ones to protect, lifestyles to preserve, and an enemy to defeat.

And I will call out any selfish idiots I see.

Now, on a slightly different tack, I’m also going to ask that people do something else they may be tempted to put to one side while they are in isolation.

Maintain, or even Raise Your Standards.

At home, it is easy to let standards slip. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests that the standards people visibly maintain and expect in the workplace don’t apply when they’re at home. Suit wearers get into their baggy sweatpants, don’t shave, watch telly all day eating fast food.

That is the slippery slope to weight-gain, depression and lowered productivity.

Work as hard at home as you do at work. I’m not suggesting you wear business attire in your house (although why not?), but you can at least dress as if you’re going to be seen in public, ensure you’re clean and well-presented, and only grow a beard if you really mean it. (Ladies excepted.)

Then ‘normal’ will be a lot easier to achieve when it’s all over.

Bon chance, mon amis.