5 Ways to Cope With a Scary Pandemic & Other Lessons from a Business Bootstrapper

A pandemic is disrupting daily life on a global scale. People across the world are forced to cope with a sense of unease and live with an almost constant fear of not knowing what the future will hold. The sentiment that I’ve heard from others is that what we’re experiencing is serious and the situation will only get worse before it gets better. While our elected leaders are testing solutions, learning from other countries and rolling out plans to address a dynamic and seemingly never-ending situation, people are left isolated and uncertain.

Ordinarily, most people enjoy routines that allow life to unfold in a fairly predictable fashion. Because this provides a feeling of comfort, human networks support a sense of “normalcy” that permeates life on a daily basis. The train will arrive within a minute or two of the posted time, coffee in the breakroom will be hot when we arrive at work, sandwiches will be on the menu at lunch, and toilet paper will be readily available on store shelves when we go shopping at the end of the day. When that sense of normalcy gets upended, many, if not most, people will develop a feeling of anxiety caused by uncertainty about what the future holds.

Having been an entrepreneur and business owner for most of my adult life, I’ve had the luxury of approaching most days, weeks and months with a healthy dose of uncertainty about what will happen. While I am human and am most certainly not immune to the anxiety associated with disruption, constant exposure to uncertainty over the last 15 years has prepared me to act with a sense of calm during a stressful time.

The truth is, this crisis will make winners and losers. Many people will suffer from human and economic losses. Our economy will experience realignments. But by and large, life will go on. People will eat, utility workers will keep the power on, banks will lend money, manufacturers will make, businesses will invest, healthcare workers will continue to innovate, truck drivers will deliver goods, and technologists will dream and create.

A positive perspective to take while feeling stressed out is that innovation happens in times of massive change. Creative solutions sparked by strained resources and dire necessity will bring changes that we will one day laud as genius - as innovations that we couldn’t imagine living without. The real truth is, people persevere. They solve problems. As a species, they survive. In time, humanity will thrive again.

However reassuring this perspective may be, it likely won’t provide lasting emotional relief. The next negative headline or drop in stock prices is likely to send anyone back into a downward spiral of negative thought. In order to truly cope, people must embrace a new normal - no matter how temporary or chaotic that may be - and take actions that allow for progress to be made. Staying busy is a great way to occupy the mind and distract it from negativity. Taking productive steps can improve your situation when we’re on the other side of this thing.

Here are five coping mechanisms that I use on a nearly constant basis to keep my spirits high in difficult times, motivate my team when things don’t go as planned and keep my company moving in a positive direction, no matter what happens. Whether you are a community leader, business owner, active employee or are suffering from a job loss, you can use one or more of the following strategies to make it to a better place emotionally and practically.

1. Assess Your Own Situation

While it is likely to cause reality shock, taking the time to assess your current status will be critical for navigating the days and weeks ahead. Sit down with your loved ones and get an idea about your resource availability. How much is in your emergency fund? How long will that last? What access to other emergency resources do you have? Where might information about unknown resources be found? How will you stay abreast of government interventions that could provide relief when it’s needed?

While you may find yourself considering worst-case scenarios as you go through this exercise, you’ll be setting some expectations for the future. With any hope, things will be better than we can anticipate, but at least we didn’t resort to panic when what we really needed was calm. If worse outcomes present, there will be opportunities to reassess and reform plans.

2. Invest Your Time

In times when monetary resources are strained and every penny must be carefully saved or spent, now is a good time to wisely invest your most valuable resource - your time. Perhaps how you were spending your time before this crisis will no longer serve your future. Or maybe the demand for your expertise is somewhat diminished at the moment. Carve out time for a planning session and think about how you can use your time to fix broken processes, innovate new solutions, or create marketing content to fuel business success in the future.

If you aren’t at the helm of a company or team, or even if you are, consider your spirituality, health, fitness, family, friendships, money, and career. What shifts can you introduce to position yourself better when normalcy returns? What new habits can you introduce that will lead you to feel more fulfilled in life? Getting more exercise is a great place to start. Cooking made-from-scratch meals with your family may bring about a sense of normalcy and it may bring back old or lead to new traditions

3. Give Back to Your Community

When I first started my business, I was in need of a mental break and I had a foundation of clients that allowed me to spend more of time volunteering. I greatly cherish that time because it gave me an opportunity to get connected in a community I had just moved to and it showed me the truth in the saying “give and you shall receive.” It seemed that the more I volunteered my time, the more my phone rang with inquiries from prospective clients. While it may have simply been from years of maintaining a good reputation and a high demand for my expertise, applying my time and energy for good gave me the space to allow positive events to unfold that I could not have anticipated.

In this difficult time, utilize your personal strengths, and if you’re a leader, your team’s strengths, to invest in helping your community recover. While following guidelines that slow the spread of the virus, connect with people you know who are on the front line and ask how your skills might be applied. Talk to others in your industry to learn how they are responding and how you might work together to have a greater impact. Talk to teachers, parents, preachers, nonprofit leaders and government representatives to learn where people are experiencing the most protracted impacts and get creative about how you can respond. If you can find a way to give back, it will be repaid to you in more ways than you can ever imagine.

4. Plan for the Future

While it may cause anxiety to focus on the uncertainty that lies ahead, knowing what you’ll do if the situation impacts you greatly will be an exercise you’ll thank yourself for should you find yourself in dire straights. Consider your thoughts around points one, two and three above and see how you might weave your insights into your plans. For instance, my wife and I live in a house that is larger than we need. It serves both our personal and professional purposes as we maintain an Airbnb in a private area of the house and our team meets occasionally to collaborate in person. Should the mortgage payments become a liability, or if a large number of people in the population find themselves in need, we have space to accommodate two to three families and we could all chip in to make it work.

On the business front, we’re planning to extend our capital resources by securing loans that will take our business into the future and keep a roof over our employees’ heads. We’re approaching this with measured patience as the government continues to roll out interventions that may provide for better options.

In times of stress, the brain is tremendous at finding solutions for survival, but it isn’t in a state to make the decisions that provide for a better long-term outcome. Knowing what you’ll do in a variety of scenarios provides for a level of comfort; and while the future is uncertain, how you respond to it doesn’t have to be. You will have to respond to the evolving situation and you may have to do so in a step-wise fashion. Having a plan in place before things get truly dire will allow you to quickly make wise decisions that have a positive short and long-term impact.

5. Take Life One Day at a Time

This crisis is absolutely unlike anything we’ve faced in the past. The rapidly changing nature of things makes it even more difficult to cope. But what we know from past experience is that we do not know what the future will hold, and life will go on. We will find solutions to our problems, both short and longterm. We will suffer, but we will also find relief. In the meantime, we will still laugh, love, satiate hunger, find wonderment, get needed rest, argue about politics, tolerate the rain, watch the flowers bloom, find respite from cabin fever - we will experience life.

We have a bad habit of living too much of our lives in the past or in the future and living too little in the present. If you aren’t ill and your family is safe, enjoy each day to the fullest. Remember that the outside world is exactly that - outside of ourselves. Take time to be with yourself. Read, meditate, pray, write, dance, sing, and seek gratitude for what you have today - your existence. Life is truly wonderful if you choose to see it that way. Any struggle is simply greater proof that we’re alive.

Will Melton is a technologist, entrepreneur, marketer, and community volunteer with lengthy experience in technology, a passion for making customers happy, and a drive to help others achieve their dreams. This article was originally published on willmelton.com.