I have been writing now for over 180 days. There are many things that aren’t great about life right now. But in comparison, there will always be more things that are right and less that aren’t and that means we need to always be grateful and keep moving forward.
Mental Health
The COVID-19 situation has surrounded us for too long and this will probably stay around for much longer. I have not been able to see the few friends I have in a really long time which was the best part of my day everyday and one of the biggest advantages of the freedom given by online businesses. I miss that and it’s affecting my already feeble emotional health.
There are other things affecting me too. I had an insanely good business a few years ago, which over the years isn’t as good as before. There are many friends and colleagues who weren’t there for me during this time. For this, I’ve learnt to realize that everything is my own problem and no one owes me anything. If anyone offers support, I need to be grateful. If someone doesn’t, that’s okay.
During this time I have also had colleagues whom I offered a lot of support to, but they have deprived me of both business and happiness. I’m trying to learn to deal with this too and hopefully I will.
Blogging
Some of the days I didn’t want to write at all. Somedays I’ve done it just because I had to do it to keep the challenge going on and somedays I’ve put my heart and mind into writing this blog.
There are many reasons that I continue to keep this challenge alive. Some of them concern me, and some of them concern you.
For the reason that concerns you, I have continued writing despite being down many days, on a holiday somewhere in between, and not having enough time many days, is because I want to showcase the # 1 most important thing about life and businesses to stay afloat: consistency.
Whether you’re building a business or just trying to stay alive, you gotta try every single day. You can’t take a single day off. I hope my year long effort can showcase that to the readers with my own example.
Appreciation
I can not appreciate my wife enough during this time of COVID-19, emotional crisis, professional crisis & more. She has stood by me, which she has always done. But not just that, she’s working many extra hours because our daughter is home-schooled by her now as schools are closed. Our domestic help is on leave because of COVID-19, and she has taken care of most of the household responsibilities in addition to many that she already had.
Like me, she also works online and is a freelance graphic designer. She has also given up on her work which not only affects her income, but also her future prospects of work, as well as her rankings on many freelance platforms. She has been the mother and the wife I hoped for. Thank you.
“Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!” It seems to me that there is nothing which would stimulate a man’s sense of responsibleness more than this maxim, which invites him to imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the past may yet be changed and amended. Such a precept confronts him with life’s finiteness as well as the finality of what he makes out of both his life and himself.
I recall it from the book you gifted me: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl quoted Dostoevski, “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.”
Remember Paulo Coelho’s saying, “you drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.”
Best
The business will come back, or you will find a better way to do these things. It’s all about being consistent, as you’d put it and being able to put out your best foot forward. The opportunity to get better will show up, almost automatically.
Chin up, buddy. You will get through this.