Secrets of my Survival

Contents

1. Effects
2. Survival
3. Conclusion

Thank you

Dear Reader,

Thanks for drawing your busy eyes to my article, especially in this overloaded informative world. It really takes no less than a miracle to get someone's attention. I promise, this is not a mediocre write-up, which will throw you off, and provides no benefit in any sense. If you stick around a little more, I will ensure that you don't miss out on some of my interesting, tried and tested techniques that I have been using to survive the crisis.

What's here for you? I won't beat around the bush and come to the point straight. Here, you are going to get a glimpse of my life experiences during this pandemic. It may sound unimportant for you to have a sneak peek into an ordinary life, but they are the crucial building block of this article. This isn't a book, usually overloaded with heavy contents or stuffed with internet references after every line. Rather, this is a tiny collection of some inspirational fictions that are ready to grab and go.

Quick intro

I am an IT Consultant, living with my wife and two young kids. Since the end of last year, I've been busy than usual, taxing my brain to deliver my job. My work has grown multi-fold but, I still don't mind. I try to dodge all the stresses at my best. Being employed in this uncertain world, sounds much better than going out of jobs. However, maintaining a sanity has become a new challenge, as we go through this worst ever global crisis.

Like many of you, I have been quite frequent to office, until the onset of lock downs. This highly buzzing phenomena has deteriorated billions of lives around the world and proved deadly for many unfortunates. Although I have experience of working long weeks from home, my body and mind never felt so confined as they are, during these untiring lock downs. Going to office, hanging out with colleagues, seeing clients were some of the actions that were keeping me alive and connected to the real world. I am sure, many of you might be going through a similar nostalgia moment. 

Let's walk along and I show you how I was able to discover some opportunities that, not only helped me to survive lock downs but also upskilled my capabilities. These capabilities are not relevant to my work, but they worked miraculously and helped me in achieving some great recognition at job.

Chapter 1: Effects

It's apparent that, the virus is certainly affecting us. However, as on today, the global virus victims are not even 0.1 % of the total global population, But why, It sounds so powerful and destructive. Why 9 out of 10 headlines just talk about it and the impacts? The higher contagious rate is certainly a reason. It is spreading like crazy and hence we can't undermine it's magnitude. Lock downs are a no brainier when we want to control something which is blowing out of proportion. Unfortunately, we continue to observe repeating lock downs and some form of restrictions everywhere. Social cutbacks have been derailing the other 99.9% lives in some or the other way. By now, we understand the fatality of this virus, but what about the mental instability that are growing due to harsher preventive measures. Even, economies outside of the lock downs are still not back to the normal. They still stand crumpled and trying hard to get back on feet. There are heaps of information floating around about how to minimise the virus spread, but there are relatively lesser information about a balanced routine that could help one within the walls.

Mobility Clamped 

I am from Melbourne and at the moment under a Stage 4 lockdown. It is definitely not pleasing as it is relatively tougher than the previous ones. A couple of months ago, covid-19 cases were almost none. Life was going back to normal. But, due to a high profile negligence, the virus came back teasing on us. Now, we are back to the square witnessing all our honest efforts going in vain.

Outside of my IT world, I am an avid traveller. I love hiking, biking, camping or any outdoor activities. Friday's are my friends, whom i always sit with and plan for the weekends. I explore new places whenever possible. Getaways over the weekend have been helping me to break free from my strenuous work cycle. It's a reboot that, i always embraces :-). I like to write and have recorded some of my expeditions on a travel blog hbcaustralia.blogspot.com. Covid restrictions has forced billions of people including me to archive any travel plans indefinitely.

I never thought of such a situation, where despite of ample of leaves, and available touring avenues, I wont' be able to plan any trip. Yup, it is frustrating.

How do i reboot now?  

Studies overload

Pandemic has snatched bites for billions but created opportunities for many. One of the evident opportunists are online course platforms. World in it's current form is a perfect bed for them to sell more and gain as many subscribers as they can and attain their revenue targets like never before. As with most, If I don't go away on weekends then .. generally I hook up to some web series. Or, if i feel overly motivated, then some self-paced learning. I was too lured by free courses that otherwise had costed me significant money. Such settings does push you to go on and get glued.

Major IT vendors have also followed the wave and are leaving no stone unturned in making everyone sing their technologies. It's efficient to invest 3 hours today on learning something that can save your 8 hours later. However, when you have so many training offers incoming, either to upkeep performance ratings or to quench a career aspiration, you tend to bogged down. Technology companies are competing and it is resulting into innovations happening at a much faster rate. This is driving the need to learn new things every now and then.

It's common to see a plethora of subjects to choose from. Many a times, even prioritising a course over another is a harder decision. Further, in order to be successful , I think it is necessary to schedule time for everything, rather than just burying yourself into studies to the infinity.

How do I commit to a learning regime, and still maintain excitement. And this is all, despite of outdoor restrictions.

Fitness

We know that a 30 minutes of any form of daily exercise is a key to a better health. Lock down leaves many bolted to their chairs and the fact that people are working from home has virtually made them work more than usual. Fitness clubs are also on the receiving ends of lock downs impacts. Gym buddies were the only excuse for many to go and touch some weights. On the other hand, there are indeed some motivational bodies that are doing just great with home workouts.

I have not been on a strict gyming schedule but always ensured that I do enough and consistent workouts to keep my body fit. Running for trains was also a sort of sprint exercise that somewhere been contributing to my overall program :) In restrictions, we usually just start and finish our work within our comfy rooms. I think during lock downs, our body should be given more attention than usual. 

How do i find motivation to keep my body fit? It's challenging with the regular office work and the aspiration for upskilling ?

Distraction

I grade distractions as an "obvious" and an "induced" one. I have 2 young kids, and distracting by them is quite obvious and i don't plan to counter it. In fact, they help me combat my work stress. A lonely brain is more likely to go nuts, hence i am happy to be by my family, despite of obvious distraction. I can plan around this kind of distraction. The way, I chose to get up at 5 in the morning to work on this writing.

By now, you may have a picture about what is an "induced" distraction. We are living in a world, never connected any better before. In fact, this connectivity has germinated an another world. A world which is perfect, fascinating but exist only within the LED screens. Smart Embedded technologies have made it possible to hold a Giga speed of computation happening on our palms. Invention of Smart phones have not only enabled workforce to do their duties on mobile but also encouraged them to quench their online social hunger, more frequently.  Let's confess, that we all are so obsessed keeping up with our social connectivity, that we go insane on flat batteries. Today, we have hoards of online platform available, where people can live and show their perfect world. We crave for recognition, and that's a normal tendency as human. In this ever growing virtual world, a lot of time, people are found rewiring their life objectives to gain a larger virtual social audience than having a chitchat in their neighbourhood. An anxiety of collecting likes on Facebook entices more than picking flowers from the garden. Keeping a social status is not bad, but it shouldn't overpower other important objectives. In my childhood, watching Television was the only induced distraction but, in today's world we have several things targeting us. 

Due to the physical social restrictions , we have grown our reliance on social platforms. The less we get to go out, the more we stay within our virtual world. We are doing everything that can please us and gives a sense of connectivity without stepping out of our houses.

How do i limit distractions and remove time for more productive things like - Learning new skills, Fitness, Outdoors etc? 

Chapter 2: Survival

Mobilise your passion

If your mobility is clamped, it doesn't mean an end of the world. You are still gifted and better off than some people like Nick Vujicic. He's an influential speaker from Australia who speaks about tremendous optimism even without any limbs. He has written many motivational books. It's very hard to contemplate the source of power that he has which, keeps him highly motivated, no matter the serious impairment. If we look through a scientific pane of glass then, there is .. "Dopamine" - a chemical produced by our brain that plays a vital role in motivating ourself. Whenever we think or do an exciting stuff, that's when dopamine releases into our brains. It is also true for anything we do, where you expect a reward in return. It's a cycle of motivation, reward and reinforcement. For example, you get dopamine secretion, just by smelling your favourite food. And you are a few moments away, relishing the first bite. Another interesting example is, when you start receiving "likes" on your post or picture, your dopamine spikes. It's a rewarding system, that keep you do that thing repeatedly. I remember an instance, when I was more active on Facebook and couldn't resist replying to a smoking thread. It wasn't just over yet. I was stuck watching that space for hours, refreshing , checking on responses and entangling into conversation without worrying about the real gain. What I just had was an induced distraction. In this world, It is impossible to kill a switch that will cut you off from the social feed. It's an adopted lifestyle which returns some happiness but at a cost of your stickiness to that world. At times, you loose interest but in no time, the social platform owners induces some more juice and hook you up again. For them, we are no more than a data node, that they usually capitalise on, by showering targeted ads. It is a good idea to weigh all our social spaces on engagement benefits. We can then take an informed decision to either minimise or turn away from those that weigh less.

This will definitely infuse some free hours back to our life. Further, we can also devise a plan to time the induced distractions in a more controlled manner. We can develop a routine that may be more close to being obvious. Similar to the other routines which are a no-brainer. For example, I know what I do when i get up in the morning. Going to bathroom, brushing teeth are usual tasks, that I never plan for. Personally, I don't believe in creating a laundry list of "To-do" which rather put you off. If we want to follow something, then we need to inject them gradually. It should be as obvious as brushing our teeth. How about a day routine, where we don't spend no more than an hour or two catching up with daily news and social engagements.

The important thing here is that the time allotted shouldn't be scattered throughout the day, but should be consumed in one go. That way, we will have a clear schedule of what we need to do and when, instead of juggling everything haphazardly. I use an android phone and there are some cool well-being options that can help curb notifications and pointless engagement when you want to spend time with your family or settle for the bed. I have "auto-play" videos turned-off everywhere. That does help to stay focused on only certain things. Further, We can also find out about how much we spend our time on screens, application usage etc. Other things that we must revisit are the notifications. They could be a byproduct of an application. No matter how streamlined we try to get using various applications, the notifications often overpowers your decision and drive you on their terms. They can be disabled for apps that you care less to be alerted.

By no means, I want to challenge the way you manage your life. Perhaps you might have a more effective way than what I say. And I will be much interested to hear your ideas.

"My old passion got a new life"

In restrictions, it is always tempting to get glued to online social world or get attracted to gaming daily bonuses. But, there are many other ways to spark your dopamine and get rewarded over and over again. There are things that are not only good for our health but also can benefit economically. When I was a kid, I was developing various hobbies. I used to spend my time doing sketching, painting and some wood work. My Father was into Interiors and I used to watch him and learn wood working techniques. Those days, most of the work was done manually and we hardly were surrounded by machines. And, this is why I can use hand saw really well :). Today, a typical hardware aisle is stuffed with a plethora of purpose built machines. They not only boost any work, but also brings precision to the final product.

I always wanted to revive this passion and the idea of using machines to save on time, was really providing me some motivation. Sometime, we plan too much and for long. No wonder, why many plans never take off, as we loose interest as the time passes. Instead of planning big ones, I though why not just get started with a small one. Hence, I built a wooden tool box to kick start my passion. My family and friends appreciated my work and that was no less than a reward. I am not a regular scavenger, but one fine day I saw some wooden pallets abandoned on the street. In no time, my mind started visualising the possible product, that i can make with those. I used my hand saw, hammer and re-purposed the nails to make a small veggie bed. It's so fascinating to gel your passions together. One passion supports another. I have up-cycled something and helped in reducing a waste.

I ordered some power tools, so that I can go fast. By now, I had motivation bursting. I became more bold as I went on. Next one was a bigger and a little sophisticated. A wooden Toy box to declutter my kid's room. I didn't realise, but I was contributing a lot to home improvement. The next thing that needed an improvement was the ergonomics to my workstation. I wanted to get a stand for my laptop but didn't want to buy.

In no time I decided to use some MDF waste that were lying in my house. In few hours, I built a stand for my laptop. What a satisfaction !! I was able to use my hobby to ease my working condition. Not only I saved money but also recycled a waste which otherwise would have gone to landfill. Buying less and re-purposing stuff definitely help in reducing carbon footprints. With handy skills, I have enormous of avenues open in front of me. I don't hesitate offering a hand to my friends for any such work. 

"I took to a new passion out of the blue"

My wife brought some plants. And I noticed even though the plants were outgrowing the pots, she was reluctant to transplant them. I felt that she should have, but she justified that none of here transplantation has ever survived. Did I just met a plant killer ;-) . Jokes apart, I wanted to solve this mystery. I never had a green thumb. But this thing drove me crazy and I went on doing my research. There was something that wasn't ticking well. The more I researched, the far I went down the rabbit hole and engrossed into various gardening adventure. I got addicted to a TV show called "Gardening Australia". From that point onwards, I couldn't stop starring people's gardens and landscapes. The beautiful camelia, the hardy lomandra, magnificent magnolias are just fabulous. By now, I acquired a lot of expertise and all the science behind a successful gardening. I though now I had enough courage and confidence to crack the transplantation case. I went ahead and experimented on a tiny tomato plant. Now, you can't really be sure whether your transplantation was a hit or a miss, until after some days are gone. After few days, the plant remained green and by that time my dopamine was through the roof. I learned about the precautions, the methods, the condition, the timing and the care needed to make a transplantation successful.

I felt rewarded and my hunger grew significantly. I discovered my green thumb. From that moment onwards, I was unstoppable and kept learning and optimising my tiny garden. What a prejudice I had about the gardening before. I thought that Gardening was just about putting seeds in the ground and watering them. Today, my respect to farmers increased enormously. By now, I have already harvested some coriander, mints, chillies, spinach and tomatoes. Looking forward to keep expanding my gardening portfolio :)

If you feel this is you but, unsure if this would really stimulate your dopamine, then just go ahead and smell the compost.

Don't over study

On the first day of gym, I was advised not to overdo any sets even though it seems tempting. If, not the same day, it does taxes your body on the following day. The most significant damage is the damage to the enthusiasm.

We all have a unique character, however may have similar goals but different way to achieve them. If someone achieves a highest honour in a certain field which is also relevant to me, It doesn't mean that, I must also use the same cookie cutter. Any achievements or recognition is just a tip of an ice berg, and we shouldn't underestimate about what it takes it acquire them. It's not always wise to jump the gun and plan something that may be not excites you or go long way. Skimming the industry regularly and re-assessing your skills will surely help you choose what should be the next step in your career. High chances, you'll come out successful. Learning platforms have logic that assess us much better and devise a plan to keep our stickiness to the maximum. Most of the times, the course videos are broken down to multiple smaller clips, so that they can be ticked off easily. It provides a quick and regular sense of achievement. I've seen these clips as small as 5 to 6 minutes, and watching the progress head moving so fast is truly great. In my opinion, there should be a defined regime of learning for each day. Let say if we plan for 5 episodes, we must do just that number and not go over. Don't sit for more than what you committed. As the usual thumb-rule goes, never do anything in excess. Keeping it concise will guarantee it's completion. It will not only keep you motivated but also avoid impacting other commitment or routines of the day. For an example, no matter how much I am engrossed into my electronic projects, I never skip my evening outdoor activities. Another thing which I do while reading or writing is that, I tune into an instrumental music. It has been helping me for many years. Yup, I am hooked up to a "concentration music" as I write these sentences. ;) Go ahead and give it a go yourself.

Don't exercise the excuse

If we don't spend time on fitness, the reason could be because we don't see an upfront damage. Exercising is like nurturing a plant, where you won't see a visible effect straightaway, but that does contribute to it's growth and strength. While we discuss about muscular exercise, we often neglect our mind.

If we fail to find time to do full blown exercise in the morning, it is very surprising to know, that we can perform a great amount of exercise even when lying in the bed. Just do a search on bed workouts and you'll find tons of information on that. It goes without saying, that stretching is an important and a quick exercise for our body that should be practised. It is a workout similar to warming up the car engine before revving it wild. Both increases life. Upgrading a computer is pointless, if we just don't care about the software. Mind is the software of our body and it also needs regular maintenance. We must compliment our fitness program with some mental exercises. One may opt for Yoga which is a complete package of exercise not only targeting mind but also the body. It has been accepted globally for it's long term effectiveness. Internet is full of good people preaching yoga and other meditation practices, and it it just a matter of tuning into them.

I went complete vegetarian 3 years ago, citing it's profound benefits on health and sustainability living. I am seeing a comparable benefits and I will pursue my journey further into veganism. Having said that I am not trying to influence anyone to go that path. After all, It's everyone's personal choice. At the end of the day, whatever diet we choose to follow we should be mindful about it's quality, moderation and sustainability.

Chapter 3: Conclusion

We are at the end of the article and I hope you enjoyed reading me. Each one of us are unique and we have a lot of in-differences about what we feel about our surroundings, life and future goals. While there is no single silver bullet for all of us, but we certainly experience problems that are similar in nature. Through this article, I intended and attempted to share my life experiences to motivate my readers. I hope that you may have found my story an inspirational. You may say that, I may be going "Jack of all trades, master of none". But, I will tell you that, I don't bow down to the idioms. I like to do whatever I am passionate about and what makes me happy in my life. Each one of us have our lovely passions hiding somewhere, and we just need to pull them out wild. There's no harm in adding few more but enjoyable tasks to our life, as long as they are adding values to your lifestyle. In most cases they will subdue our stressful routines as you seen in my story. Alright, I think I've done enough writing, I will probably go and quench my new thirst of home automation.

Do let me know, how you feel about reading this article. I am eagerly waiting for your comments. I may write some more in future.

Till that time, keep smashing all the challenges and enjoy every moment of your life !! :)