4 Ways To Build Yourself Up While The World Falls Apart

I worked from home for the first time in my professional career. My day job is very old fashioned and still believes that you can’t do work if you’re wearing comfortable shoes or not in the office. So, I guess, assuming nothing bad happens to my tribe (condolences if something happens to yours), I’m kind of thankful for this whole shut down situation. I have capitalized on this opportunity and wanted to share with you 4 things you can do to help deal with the craziness and set yourself up for success after this all blows over.

Eat Good Food

Our standard excuse for not eating well is that we don’t have enough time. Well, here you go, you have a lot more time now. You don’t have to drive to work or drive home. I am getting about 1.5 hours back in my day. Once you get use to eating great meals, you will find it hard to go back to eating fast food take out. This change will have the largest impact on your life. You are what you eat…so don’t eat crap.

Build Some Rituals

Coffee is one of my favorite rituals. It’s like a meditation for me. It engages all the sense and I can just think while my body goes through the motions. A major source of stress comes from not processing emotions. This is an excellent time to just process what is going on inside of you. This will be good practice for when you get back to the “real world.” You’ll find you need that time to clear your mind and look for opportunities to do so, like the drive home.

Exercise

This is another aspect of life that gets let go of due to a lack of time. I am getting up at my normal time and going straight out to exercise. I’m not doing anything crazy; push ups, sit ups, stuff like that. You don’t need a big fancy gym to get healthy, you just have to really want it. Exercise helps your body feel better (initially it sucks, if I’m being honest) and it helps with discipline and mind set. There are very few things in life where we can take principles like perseverance, consistency, drive, mental toughness and directly apply them. Practicing these in the gym will help you use them in other aspects of life.

Spend Time With Family

Time is something we will never get back. I have been thinking about all the time I am missing with my daughters. All of their growing up is happening while I’m sitting in a cubicle somewhere. Use this time to connect with your family. Eat breakfast and lunch together. Go stretch your legs together. Just connect with them regularly. I know we need boundaries to make sure our work is efficient, but family and work can co-exist without damaging each other. Take advantage of this opportunity to build up your family. If you come out of a 14 day quarantine still loving each other, you’ll be able to make it through the long run.

I hope you pick at least one of these and capitalize on the opportunity of having more time at home.