The Pandemic is Wasting My Life
I believe that this is nothing new for many people. From lockdowns to the new normal, our life is never getting back to the old normal, at least not anytime soon. I used to question, “Why do I need to spend my youth in such a manner?” As time passed, I realised that it is all about perspectives.
Three Invaluable Lessons I Learnt by Framing my Circumstances
Live in the PRESENT
Live in the moment. Don’t let the past or future, which is something beyond your control, determine your life today.
The more we spent worrying about the “future”, the more we are wasting the “present”.
“What would happen next?” — we worry about the future; And when the time passed, we ended up regretting it with “Why did I not cherish the moment then?” — we cry over the past. And this will become a never-ending cycle unless we pull a hand break to it.
I am still a learning-in-progress, but I want to encourage you to LIVE IN THE PRESENT because why mull over something that you can’t control? We can complain all we want about how the pandemic is affecting our lifestyles; worry all we want about “what’s next”, but there is absolutely nothing that we can do nor change. So, why not leverage on the “new norm” to discover new hobbies, new initiatives, etc.
Gratitude is EVERYWHERE
I have tried to journal daily for a few months and recently explored bullet-journaling where I tried to pen down my daily gratitude! I used to think that, my life is so dull and boring, there is nothing to be grateful for. However, what I learnt is that — gratitude does not need to come with any magnitude.
It can be as small as, “my laptop doesn’t lag as much today” or “I get to drink a cup of coffee before work starts”. It is really all about perspectives, how we choose to frame our circumstances.
As cliché as it sounds, a half-filled glass of water can be seen as half-filled or half empty. It is all about perspective. Even the most useless item nowadays, passport can be used as a cup coaster! Think about it, it’s all about…
Recognise and Celebrate SMALL WINS
Social media has increased the interconnectedness between the people, but at the same time, it has also raised the “social bar” for everyone. We intuitively compare our achievements with others whenever we are on social media. Every time I click into my friends’ stories, all I see is that they are doing better than me, and I have always asked myself: “How can achieve as much as them?”
But I am missing something here, why are we always chasing after others’ footsteps when we all have different callings in life?
We don’t measure growth by comparing with others because each and everyone of us is created for different purposes. Growth is never about not getting knocked down again, it is about how long you took to recover from it compared to the last knockdown.
To anyone who is reading this, I want to encourage you to stop these comparisons, start recognising and celebrating small wins in life.
PAUSE & REFLECT
Remember to always take a pause and reflect, you will start to notice amazing revelations when you start giving yourself a break.
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