Driving past the Fog (Updated 11/9/20)

This is a novel situation for many in our generations: the fear of the invisible, the lack of control and the uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 are feelings most in our generations never had the opportunity to face at the presented scale. Taking the situation in perspective, this is certainly not the most severe crisis we’ve had in the world. Not even the most severe pandemic we’ve had if compared to the Spanish flu in the early 1900’s in such poor sanitation and education standards. I’m not at all diminishing the impact of this disease but contrasting its impact wit other large events we've had in history such as WWI, WWII and other pandemics.

 So, if we rationally understand that, why the fear, the anxiety and the stress? And, what to do to get past it?

 The feeling is generated by our lack of control of the situation. And the more we think about this situation, this lack of control and reinforce it by the continuous news, the more these thoughts of fear, vulnerability and uncertainty keep flowing through our minds. Several beliefs we’ve had before this crisis were thrown off the window and the world is reshaping a different way; most plans we’ve had in late 2019 didn’t materialize and the world as we’ve envisioned changed considerably and very fast. This uncertainty of what will be presented in the future months or years increases our anxiety and stress. There are studies showing people prefer bad news to uncertainty: with bad news, at least, one can start to make future plans.

 So what are the uncertainties that surrounds us at this time?

• Physical Health uncertainties: How bad is this disease? How long will it last? Will we have a rebound? When will we have a vaccine?
• Economic uncertainties: What is the impact to the economy as countries are locked down? How long will these last?
• Social uncertainties: How will the disease and its economical impact change the world we live and were used to? What are the main changes ahead of us?
• Mental Health uncertainties: How will the above uncertainties affect the way we see and experience life? How much more distraction, anxiety and stress will it bring? How the loneliness feeling will impact people?

 How to avoid being paralyzed by the uncertainty that surrounds us at this time? I don’t know the answer to any of these above questions and the fact that these answers will be different in different parts of the world, the way I explain it to myself is: I know this pandemic is not the worst one we’ve had, the world as we knew before 2020 had been through rougher times, and still got to the point we were in late 2019; good, bad or indifferent – better than what it is now. So I’m confident we will get to better days, with similar feelings of freedom, independence and privacy as we’ve had before COVID-19. I’m also positive the world will be different as the learnings we are having globally with this pandemic won’t be forgotten by our generations such as social distancing, hygiene, mask usage, intentional connection and changes on the way we travel.

My feeling is that I was driving on the road, on sunny sky and had great clarity of what was ahead. My car (representing my life, job, values) is in good shape, well maintained, and I know my destination is a great place. Suddenly, the sky darkens and this dense fog clouds my vision. With this lack of clarity, one option would be to just park my car and wait until the fog lifts. This may take some time and even though I cannot see 50m ahead, I can see 20m and by going 20m forward I can see the next 20m.

 As I’m excited to get to my destination, I decide to keep going. I certainly had to slow down, as I don’t have the same clarity I had before. Depending on external factors I may even be forced to take a detour from my expected and normal way. Despite not liking the detour and change, this may be a great opportunity to learn something I’d never do in case the sky was clear. And I don’t know about you, but my most impacting learning moments, the ones that shaped how I think and who I am today, came from detour experiences, when life was not going quite as I expected. So appreciate these moments, learn from them.

 If you are in a similar situation, heading to a good destination, in a well-maintained car and great company:

• Don’t stop, don’t let the fear get you paralyzed
• Slow it down a bit under the fog, ensure your safety and the safety of the ones with you in the journey, but keep going
• Make the most of the detours to learn areas you’d normally not do and keep going
• Eventually the fog will lift, the road will clear, and we’d have learned a lot from this COVID-19 detour
• This calm and confidence will take you and all the others in your car safely to your destination

 The fog is here and may stay for some time. We will need to slow down, embrace detours and, calmly and confidently drive past the fog. As we emerge, our experience will be enlightened by what we've learned along the journey and we may not only safely have gotten to our destination but have reimagined it and I’m confident it will be better than before.