Do you feel guilty?

by Adam Gray | @AGSocialMedia | LinkedIn

I know that a lot of people do. Lockdown presented many of us the chance to do something positive with our time…and almost everyone squandered it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everyone wasted all of their time because I don’t think that’s the case, but if I had known in February that lockdown and this strange state of affairs would be continuing for six months (or more) I know that I would have done things a little differently. Well, not entirely differently but I would have had a grander ambition. Perhaps studied another degree, read some classic books I’ve never found time to or started to learn another language.

The best time to start that project was at the beginning of lockdown...the second best time is now!

I certainly feel a bit let-down that I didn’t fully exploit this chance.

So, the reason that I’m saying this is that the way things are going we may be heading in to a different phase of “lockdown” in certain place. Probably not as extreme or as long as what has just happened but nonetheless, things will not go back to “Friday in the pub and Saturday at the match” for the foreseeable future. So what projects or activities do you look back on and wish you’d begin in February?

For me, the list is:

• Yoga - I’ve always wanted to do it, but have never carved-out enough time in my schedule to do so and as I get older I’m feeling stiffer and more clunky than ever.
• Running - I could have got myself pretty fit with daily runs…but I didn’t.
• Poetry - I have always been fascinated by words and have fancied going and sitting on a hill trying to capture the beauty of it all with words…I didn’t do that either.
• Writing another book - I have written one book myself, and another with Tim…but I want to write another.
• Decorating - we’ve lived in a big old house for 10 years and I decorated it when we first moved in but I definitely need doing again.
• Gardening - we have a large garden which I have kept pruned and grass mown…mostly, but I have always meant to have a go at growing vegetables but didn’t do that either.

That’s not to say that I haven’t done some things though. I have learned some more guitar pieces, written lots of blogs, conducted a research project, eaten healthily, been for at least a 3 mile walk almost every day and sold many things on eBay. All of those have made me feel that the time has been fruitful, but I still feel I could have done more and…over the coming weeks…I shall.

With all of these things that you wish you'd done, don't just wish...do them. To paraphrase the Chinese proverb "The best time to start that project was at the beginning of lockdown...the second best time is now!"