Quarantine Day 1 in South Korea: Seizing the chance to practice gratitude
I bet you never expected anyone to say that they eagerly waited to jump into quarantine as soon as they arrived in South Korea. You may even be wondering who’s crazy enough stand on the edge of bankruptcy, lose two businesses, and rent unpaid. That’s me!
Just like you I saw the corona virus hanging over us like a dark spirit of fear, threatening ruin and despair. With you, I felt afraid, and I almost embraced that spirit of defeat. But something changed when I re-imagined quarantine as an opportunity.
This could be the single most golden opportunity for all of us fortunate to be quarantined. Fortunate? Yes! Stick with me for a moment. What if we re-framed “quarantine” as an opportunity to evolve as a human being? What if we imagine quarantine as our own personal trigger for growth and change that eluded us because we claimed to not have time? Now I have the time and this is my opportunity to evolve professionally and personally and I am eagerly seizing this chance.
I picked 3 main areas for self evolution.
Practice Gratitude
I can think of no other skill more important for success than gratitude. If you’re like me, you probably feel good sharing some catchy meme about being grateful or jump over it when you read those top 10 lists of success. That changed for me in October 2018. I was watching Gary Vaynerchuk talk about gratitude. He had this week long constant posting about gratitude and it changed my perspective from negative to positive.
At that time we were struggling in the starting stages of our bacon business and his words resonated with me. Practicing gratitude is a skill, be grateful for every like, every comment, every follower, be grateful for what you have.
When I heard those words I remember stopping in the bacon lab and thinking, hes right. Right then and there I listed out loud every good thing that could think about.
- Grateful we sold as much as we did.
- Grateful for our single loyal customer who buys our bacon every month.
- Grateful for every follower we had.
- Grateful for the great interaction we had with our followers that week.
- Grateful that our customers wrote a review saying it was the best bacon they have had in their life.
- Grateful that today was sunny and blue sky. (Pollution is the norm.)
Suddenly I felt at peace, the worries of fear and failure fell off my shoulders, and I felt a warm comforting feeling envelope me. It was stunning how choosing to be grateful changed my mental and physical state. Since then I have tried to practice gratitude but have been inconsistent. But that changes today.
I will practice gratitude daily, purposefully, deliberately, choosing to find the positive in every day.
Starting my day with gratitude, listing 3 things or more and ending my day in gratitude, listing 3 things or more.
For today I chose these.
- Im grateful that today we had blue sky. YAY!
2. Im grateful that I get to be in quarantine and evolve. Take the opportunity baby!
3. Im grateful that I got to chat with my brother today. Love ya bro!
I think for the first month or so I want to post publicly on twitter for accountability and also hopefully encourage others to start as well.
Have you practiced gratitude recently? Care to join?
Upgrade My Daily Habits
Having a daily system à la Scott Adams’ “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” would help me sleep better, eat better, feel better, and provide more opportunities for success. Yeah, yeah I hear ya. We all roll our eyes when we hear get enough sleep, eat well, get some exercise etc. Every time I call back home my mom still asks me if I’m getting enough sleep. But just like practicing gratitude, wanting isn't enough. These next two weeks I have to stay at home, so why not practice a new daily system for life.
I welcome any tips on how to improve my system. Going to start simple then add on more. What should I add on next?
1. If awake early and cant sleep: Create, write, produce anything.
2. Up by 7 AM (ish)
3. Start each day with gratitude: 3 or more!
4. Exercise, even if its just getting on my exercise clothes it counts.
5. Create, write, be productive in early morning.
6. No heavy topics after 8 PM.
7. Phones off and away from bed around 9 PM.
8. No later than 10 in bed.
9. End with gratitude: 3 or more!
Learning New Skills
I have been watching Scott Adams’ periscopes recently when he strongly suggested learning new skills during the down time that corona virus has brought. Taking his advice I want to end my quarantine with some new skills in my talent stack. A few years ago, Wade Shepard, author of Ghost Cities of China visited Songdo in Incheon and I helped him interview the local city folk farming on land that hasn’t been developed yet. He encouraged me to do a podcast. I balked at the idea because what did I have to say, really? My partner just burst out laughing as she read this over my shoulder. When I looked back at her, those eyes said, “When do you ever not have anything to say?” After pouting for a bit I thought why not try it out. I feel that blogging, doing a video podcast via periscope, and then uploading to Youtube and podcast app would expose me to skills that I can use professionally and personally. So for the next 2 weeks I will write a blog post a day (except during my online English coaching days), periscope a day, and along the way figure out how to convert periscope videos into a Youtube and podcast format. I also give myself permission to write in other forms besides blogging, such as letters back home, poetry, fiction book ideas, and record notes on my bacon research. I think that’s a good place to start and see what I learn along the way.
Corona Virus Triggers the Golden Age
This is only the beginning of a tremendous transformation in our world. Soon we will see many positive changes wrought by this global pandemic. Let’s not get lost in the darkness, but pull together and come out the side a better world. Build your talent stack one day at a time.
