How to keep positive during the Coronavirus?

How to keep positive? Let’s face it, it’s been harder than you first thought. We are now in the third week of #lockdown with no end in sight. Watching or reading the news is like playing ping pong. You just don’t know which side is telling the truth.

So how do you keep positive in the doom and gloom, especially if you are running your businesses? For most, it’s a case of sitting out, furloughed or government-backed. You are covered in some shape or other. 

Businesses trading for less than 12 months or not employing staff. You are piggy in the middle and therefore are scrambling to keep busy or trying to grow your business. These are uncertain times.

Her Majesty The Queen's Speech was three times more watched than at Christmas and she congratulated the people for their stiff upper lip and for getting things done. Saying with loved ones ‘We'll meet again.’ Close references to Blitz. A few weeks ago only the closing of the National Growth Exhibition & Conference I said to delegates that we were on a war footing not with any nation but with a virus we cannot understand. Now, nearly four weeks later we are requested to stay at home and only leave once a day for either exercise or essentials.

At first, it seemed like someone else's dream, until the reality started to bite. It was someone else who would get coronavirus ‘no one I know’ until you start to get messages and see Facebook updates and you see friends, colleagues, and customers getting it. So how do you stay positive? 

Yoga, running, cycling or reading a book have been suggested as a good plan. It is apparent it’s going to get worse before it gets better and we are heading for peak right now. 

What can you do?

Stay Positive

Easier said than done I know. Team up with a buddy, someone who knows you and is not family who will be your cornerstone person and help pick you up. Trust me it’s not weak to feel low. I have two to three people I call every day and are not family or best friends. They are my business friends.

Exercise 

Exercise once a day without fail. Walk, run or cycle all can be achieved and make it part of your routine.

Eat

It’s hard to plan meals every day, especially if you have a young family. But try and spy up your life with food. There are several free recipes given out online to try. Get creative.

Love

Tell your loved ones especially wife, husband, partners, mum, dad, and children you love them every day. If not in person over zoom, Skype or google meets.

Play

Each day find time for playing, especially if you have kids. Set up ball games in the garden. Order a basketball hoop or badminton set online. Take up a board game.

Read 

Find a book to escape into. Imagination is a wonderful thing and books are a great way to relax the mind and grow mentally.

Friends and Family

Make time for friends and family. Use Zoom or House Party to get together with friends and family and get creative. By creating a weekly meet up online and theming it with a pub quiz, charades or something else you can still keep things social.

Work

Set out a clear timetable to do work. Keep marketing your businesses online through social media and other digital means. Get in touch with your entrepreneurial side. Start revolutionising what you do with your businesses. Challenge your beliefs with how you see the digital market as things will never be the same again and the online world is truly here to stay.

Join in with networking online even if it’s outside your comfort zone. Use the time to reach out to old and new businesses. Use social media to communicate with the world and engage with businesses on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Work buddy 

Find someone you can talk to, a buddy. Someone you can share information with and support each other. It doesn’t have to be one person, it can be many. Remember you will have high and low days

Forgive 

Forgive yourself for taking a break when watching TV in the day or staying up late and getting up late. This is not the time for self-recriminations.

Remember 

This is not forever and we will get back to see our loved ones and be able to go to the pub, restaurant or cinema again.

Take care and we will see you at the other end.