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Well, that’s not at all what I expected for my first “third” of 2020! How about you? Sheesh! However, the opportunities that COULD have been may far exceed the perils of COVID 19. Now, I realize the tragedies that occurred during this time, as a close friend of mine lost his father. That doesn’t go overlooked. My love and support goes to him and his family, along with all the other families that lost someone during this time. But what I do want to identify is how we have been spending our time during the quarantine. Did we all just move from our beds to our couches for the day? Did we have kids to home-school or keep entertained? Did we pick a project that’s needed doing for the last 6 months? Did we explore a new hobby? Did work on our family relationships? Did we start a new side hustle? Did we look for a new job? Did we work on anything that would lead to self-improvement? Where did the time go? And regardless of what we did, did we find actual value in it for ourselves? And, maybe more importantly, did others find actual value in our actions? How many times have we said to ourselves “If only I had more time then I would…”? Many times the rest of that statement involves spending more time with our children (for those of you that have them) and/or family. Often also it’s exploring a side hustle or investigating a new hobby or reading a book or...etc, etc, and so forth. And these last few (maybe more for some) weeks have offered that time. Now, I’m SURE I don’t know everyone’s situation and what could actually be done in our individual lives. But I did see an (probably once in a lifetime) opportunity to check some things off our lists. This was potentially a time to “turn it on” for whatever our hearts desired. But did we? Did we recognize what was happening and take full advantage of it? Were we fully present with whatever our choice was? Or did we just try to fill time? I listened to a clip of what I assume was a governmental address by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Regardless of our politics, his message was clear. While he talked about 4 minute conversations with his now grown children, he remembered the conversations as shallow. “Do you need anything?” and “How can I help?” and “When will I see you again?” were the “lines” that he spoke. But during this quarantine, he talked about how he has noticed his kids now have complex lives with complex issues. He said he got to go deep into a meaningful conversation with what he now feels REALLY matters with his kids. Essentially, this quarantine has brought into view his own weaknesses around what he actually values. Gov. Cuomo then went on to talk about how many cups of coffee with his mother he accepted only to call back and say he was too “busy” to make it. He stated these things wouldn’t happen again. Now, who’s to say any of us will keep to what we said during this time. But, the part that I like is that it has now been put in front of us, like it or not, what we have been taking for granted or what we saw as important may not really be all that important. Sure, employment definitely means keeping food on the table and roofs over our heads and certainly needs to be taken seriously. But have we learned to live to work instead of work to live? I wrestle with this myself so I’m passing no judgement here. This article was all really just food for thought. It’s been something I’ve thought about since the quarantine started. It occurred to me mainly because it’s not something I have taken full advantage of. However, the more I think about it, the more aware I become of what I have and have not done. Which then, sort of, allows me to say to myself that maybe the things I’ve said I want to do or I’ve said are important and said “If only I had more time…”, maybe I really don’t or they aren’t or I’ve had all the time I need. Maybe this time has allowed us to scrub our list. What do we really need or want to spend time and effort on? My hope for you is that you found it or you were able to start to separate what’s what. It takes a very honest conversation with yourself, which is sometimes VERY hard to do. My hope is also that you will have that conversation. After reading this article back to myself, it feels a little somber. But rest assured...it is meant to be reflective and hopefully action inducing! And, if you’ve not gotten to what you thought you should or wanted to, there is STILL time. Not only under quarantine but AFTER it lifts. There will be time to spend on the things we REEEEEALLY want to make time for! We can do it all! We have to find what we value and what others value. If we are in the value delivery business, we not only give to those others, we give to ourselves as well. Hopefully, I’ve broken into the value delivery service with you! I thank you so much for your time and attention!! If you would like to share story or think maybe you are not living to your full potential, I would love to support you in whatever way I can. Please reach out. I would also love it if you left a comment!
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AuthorCraig is the owner of Craig McKim Business Development and Coaching. Archives
May 2021
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