Winning Through a Pandemic

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

There once was a pair of twin brothers who grew up in a single-parent household.

They lived with their dad, who was an abusive alcoholic, and made their lives a living hell. Their dad treated them harshly: emotional and physical abuse, neglect and torture, among other things.

One day the brothers decided to run away from home to escape their terrible environment and live on their own.

In the following years that ensued, the brothers themselves eventually split up and went their separate ways. Mainly because of the different decisions that each of them made.

Many, many years later they reunited and were able to catch up…in prison.

One of the brothers was the inmate. The other, was the visitor.

The inmate brother ended up living a life of crime. He himself became an abusive drunk. He did drugs, robbed, got in fights, treated women poorly, and made life miserable for others.

The brother who was the visitor ended up becoming a millionaire. He ran his own businesses, started a non-profit, went to church, was a role model to his children, and was happily married.

They asked each other what was the biggest reason why they ended up where they did in life.

They both responded: “It’s because I had an abusive, alcoholic father.”

One brother became a victim to his bad environment. The other brother used it to fuel him to become successful.

A worldwide viral pandemic is not the same as growing up in an abusive household. But the principle of how to deal with a negative environment is the same. We can either choose to become a victim or a victor given the current situation.

I’ve been talking to a lot of people during this pandemic and asking how they are dealing with the effects of it (social distancing, quarantine, lack of work etc.). Their response tells me a lot about their attitude and outlook on life.

Some people choose to be a victim: they stop working out, binge on TV/Netflix/Youtube, retreat from others, give up on finding work, become lazy, live in fear, and complain to others about how they have been wronged.

Some people choose to be a victor: they proactively reach out to others, network, try new workouts online, use the extra time to develop a skill, start a side hustle, focus on family, and build new positive habits into their life.

We are all dealing with the same situation. We are all in this pandemic together - yet some of us will become better because of it and some of us won’t. The difference is how we choose to view the situation by focusing on the positives rather than the negatives. This is 100% within our control because it is simply a matter of choosing the thoughts that we want to think.

Success in life has nothing to do with the bad hand you were dealt. It has everything to do with how you play the game with the hand that you have been dealt.

You can either choose winning thoughts or losing thoughts. 

It’s your choice - be well