“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”- Aristotle.
If you are constantly disappointed, angry, frustrated, sad, stressed, pessimistic about the current ‘coronademic’ scenario or feel you have lost your self-confidence along with your money, it’s time to reevaluate, reconnect and rediscover yourself. I know it’s difficult to stay motivated in a lockdown but trust me, it’s achievable with these three simple steps:
Step I – Spend time with yourself
- What makes you happy and unhappy? Identify a time when you were bored, satisfied and happiest. Was it during school days, college time, early professional life or when you are with your friends, family, relatives? Similarly, find out activities, things, people that irritate you so that you can embrace good things and distance yourself from ‘not so good things’. This will not only help you for a lifetime. Spend time with your family or do more activities that make you feel energized and help you feel better.
- Evaluate your values and morals and teach them to your child/ren. You too can learn from your elders and youngers.
- What do I want to change? Why and how will I change it? Is change possible? If not, what should I do to accept change? If yes, how can I bring suitable changes?
Activity – Find out any 3 items and persons that make you happy and you cherish the most.
Step II – Find out what makes you happy
- Work on your physical and mental wellbeing, Try a new indoor sport, game or hobby; learn new exercises or yoga for meditation. When you can’t go outside, go inside. Pray for yourself, your family and others too as the entire world is one big family.
- Read books, articles, magazines or journals; discover some creative activities like cooking, stitching, baking, cake or cookie decoration, drawing, painting, sketching, coloring nail-art, origami, learning a new language, writing (begin with a small paragraph on any topic). You can start with simple ingredients and items available at your home. Watch videos online for further assistance.
- Stay away from negativity. Social distancing is essential to remain cheerful, healthy and content.
Step III – Act Now
Never play the blame game or victim card by blaming others for our failures and damages (even if they have wronged you). In challenging crises instead of paying blame games, gossiping, bad-mouthing others it is important to accept full responsibility for your life and then move on. The situation won’t change suddenly on its own you have to make conscious decisions to accept it, learn from it and let it pass. As aptly said, “Tough time doesn’t last, tough people do”.
Use this planner to keep track of your discoveries:
Stay happy, stay healthy!
Prof. Rupal Jain holds an MBA degree from Atharva School of Business (Mumbai) with Marketing as her specialization. She has 13 published books, written over 100 online articles, has been teaching for of over 12 years. Do share your response at jainrupal2519@gmail.com.
