Life Happens
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
The biggest lesson that Covid-19 has taught me is that life happens. When the year started, just like everyone else I had goals I wanted to smash in 2020. Relationship goals, financial goals, health goals and business goals all pretty much disrupted. This got me thinking though, I wasn’t ready for the unexpected. We can never have the perfect plan to progress but I have realised we just need to master the art of evolving.
As I was brainstorming this post i read about Hal Elrod. Hal actually died at age 20. Hit head-on by a drunk driver at 112 km per hour, his heart stopped for 6 minutes, broke 11 bones. Eventually woke from a coma to be told by doctors that he would never walk again. Not only did Hal walk, he ran a 80 km ultra-marathon and became a hall of fame business achiever. All before the age of 30.
Then, in November of 2016, Hal nearly died again. His kidneys, lungs, and heart failing, which led to him being diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer. While reading this I was in shock. How one person can go through such at a very young age and make it out on the other side.
After enduring the most difficult year of his life, Hal is now cancer-free. He is furthering his mission as the Executive Producer of The Miracle Morning Movie. A documentary that both shows you the morning rituals of some of the world’s most successful people, as well as takes you around the world to show you the life-changing impact that Miracle Mornings are having, globally. Now if this story doesn’t fascinate you and intrigue then I do not know what will.
Hal’s story made me realise that life happens, and it happens to all of us. No matter your colour, race or creed, life happens to all of us. The difference now is how we go through the challenges we go through. Do you just sit back and wallow in your sorrows or you adapt and become more determined to achieve greatness. You could have a perfect life today and tomorrow it is all up in smoke. Yet how you react to your situation determines the rest of your life. He had every right to give up or play the victim but he didn’t. That is pretty much the story for most people today, everything upside down, but how will you move forward?
We spend an exorbitant amount of time pushing for positive change, but our attention has been stuck for so long on what’s wrong that we don’t adjust when things begin shifting and moving in a different direction.
We may be living and breathing in the current moment, but we are constantly reacting to past. Past circumstances, past hurts and past plans. And despite how fluid and constantly changing things are — and we’ve all been witness to this — we don’t operate from a place that recognises this fact of life. I’d hate to be the bearer of bad news but this could easily be our new normal. And how we navigate this time will determine how we move forward.
Developing a new perspective is going to be key moving forward. A lot of people are still stuck in what ifs right now and this whole time they have not changed. Life happens, you just need to deal with it. You can mourn the past and blame the coronavirus for where you are today but if you are still alive you a chance to start over.
Lots of people say things like I am gaining weight because of the virus, or my finances are in shambles because of the virus. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe your finances had a virus before the coronavirus? Your relationships had a virus before the coronavirus? Maybe your business had a virus before the coronavirus? Have you actually sat back to think about that before blaming the pandemic for your own actions or lack of?
If you take anything from this let it be that life happens and the best way moving forward is to plan for all possible scenarios. You need to be ready to move with the wave when it comes, whatever that wave is. I know it is easier said than done but we now have a blueprint. People can work from home, children can be schooled from home and we can exercise from home. It is possible, it’s not a unicorn. My question to you is are you willing to dig deeper for a new foundation for your life from this?
When the golden gate bridge was built in San Francisco the engineers had to dig a deeper foundation than normal bridges because it sits on a fault line. Not only did they dig deeper but they had to factor in how the bridge would sway when an earthquake hits in such a way that it moves with the earthquake. How much deeper are you willing to go for your health, your finances and your relationships? How much deeper will you go for your kids and your legacy? Are you will to go down until you hit bed rock or you are still going to build on sand?
As much as these are unprecedented times there’s people who have been homeschooling for years, there’s people that ditched the corporate world to work from home. People turned their basements and spare rooms into home gyms, they may have never anticipated this pandemic but they were ready. So after this you have no excuse, now you know that life happens and you need to evolve or die. If you never did, begin to plan how you can survive a similar situation if it happens again. This could mean multiple streams of income, a sustainable exercise routine and contingencies to deal with a shutdown.
There are so many life lessons to learn from this ordeal, like I said my biggest take away is life happens. So i urge you plan exactly for that, whatever it looks like to you. Be ready when life happens.
Hope you are staying safe and are still sane during these tough times, we will get to the other side better. We are in this together. Share with us your #lockdowndiaries in the comments section.
Photo Credit: Photo by Rachel Xiao from Pexels
