Re-think "COVID" self-dialogue

"I couldn't get my paper done."

"I just sat and watched Netflix."

"I am not sure where to start."

It has been almost a year! I remember sitting in my office before spring break of 2020 thinking, "they would never really shut everything down, would they?" And yes, just a few days later the entire country was on shut-down. We all struggled to figure out working from home, learning from home, and of course.... Zoom meetings! We all started to refer to "COVID" as this reason for not doing things-- like even getting completely dressed!

Here we are in 2021, almost a year later, and in some ways this way of life has become the new "normal." We are used to masks. We are used to quarantines. We have accepted so much of the differences in life. But that is not really the point of this article.

The point I want to make is this... are we letting COVID become an excuse, or a crutch? Are we letting our dreams take a slide because of COVID? I told my students at the beginning of this semester to not let this pandemic define them. It shouldn't be something that so easily can steal your dreams, ambitions, or even your drive. Only we can let this derail us.

If you had dreams in early 2020 to start a business--- why not continue that dream now? If you were enrolled in college classes-- why aren't you dedicated to those classes now? Maybe you were going to lose weight, or find a new job, or start a podcast. All of these dreams can still take place, AND they can take place even in a pandemic.

Let's take this opportunity to re-think our COVID self-dialogue. Instead of, "I can't do anything because I have been quarantined again" why not think this way, "I wonder if there is some free course I could take online to learn a new skill?" Instead of saying/thinking, "I just don't feel like doing my college classwork." Try thinking this, "I have the chance to dive deeper into this subject and learn more about my future career."

We cannot control COVID, or a pandemic, or even how other people react. We can control what we do with this time. Wouldn't it be great if at the end of this pandemic you could say, "Yes, that was a rough time, but I started a new business, or wrote a book, or learned poetry." Let's not let COVID define us. Let's not let COVID become a blanket excuse. Let's instead come out of this even stronger than before.

Today start to redefine the dialogue.

Dr. Cindy Briggs is an author, professor, and business coach. You can reach her at [email protected].