Years ago, I was sitting in an administrative meeting with other school leaders as we were discussing some unexpected complication that had come our way. I can't remember what it was, but it wasn't good and we were trying to figure out what to do next. One of the leaders in the room said, 'Well, let's not waste the tragedy' and proceeded to describe some things that our team had the opportunity to do that we had been discussing for awhile and just didn't seemed positioned to pull it off. The tragedy had actually positioned us to do what we had been trying to figure out how to do. I don't remember anything else from that meeting, but I remember that concept!
And now we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Our social lives have been shut down for a greater good. For many, our professional lives have been re-framed, reduced, or completely incapacitated. Sickness swirls all around us.
It is a tragedy. There is no arguing this and there is no making light of or minimizing that.
With that said...
We should also not waste this tragedy. History is full of incredible and amazing things that happened only because a tragedy forced people to make them happen. The Coronavirus pandemic is a different type of tragedy in the sense that it's actually given us all time and space (literally, social distancing and all) to slow down and think. Imagine that, real thinking. Some of us are even going next level, and not just thinking but pondering! (don't hurt yourself doing this). I want to challenge you to not waste this tragedy by making a plan to make use of the time because we have an unusual amount of it on our hands. Don't pick your head up from your phone in 4 weeks, 4 months, or however long this will take and realize that you wasted the tragedy. Here's how I recommend planning not to waste this tragedy...
Get up in the morning and go to bed at night the same time every single day. This creates a rhythm in your sleep cycle that your body appreciates and bookends the day well. John Mark Comer, in his book The Relentless Elimination of Hurry, makes an argument that our insanely busy society exploded with the advent of the electric light bulb. Before that, people woke up with the sun and went to be when it went down. Now's a good time to try some form of that rhythm since it seemed to work ok for all of human history up until about 150 years ago.
Get 7-8 hours of sleep every single night. There's piles and piles of research on how important this is to our mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health but we just can't seem to do it in the craziness of life...until the craziness of life involved a pandemic that requires social distancing.
Do the same things at the same time each day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, working out, zoom calls, checking emails, even when to look at your social media. Slot it all into the same time every day.
Begin your day, slowly and quietly, in God's Word and silence. In the midst of our mind-numbing busy lives there is a ton of research and writing beginning to emerge addressing the importance of being quiet and un-distracted. Cal Newport's 'Deep Work', Jarrett Stevens' 'Praying Through', John Mark Comer's 'The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry', and Clay Scroggins, 'How to Lead in a World of Distractions' are just a couple of the books that I've come across that touch in on this subject.
Do that one thing everyday that you have always said you wanted to start doing. Reading more? Exercising? Family game night? Journaling? What is it? We all have it and now is the time to start doing it!
John Maxwell, in his book 'The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth', states that there is no work-life balance. Rather, there are slow times and busy times and confusing the two leads to burnout. Some of us may feel that the slow-nature of the Coronavirus is a tragedy and on so many levels the Coronavirus is a tragedy. Let's just make sure we don't waste this tragedy by fussing and fuming over what we can't do when there is so many valuable things we could be doing.
And now we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Our social lives have been shut down for a greater good. For many, our professional lives have been re-framed, reduced, or completely incapacitated. Sickness swirls all around us.
It is a tragedy. There is no arguing this and there is no making light of or minimizing that.
With that said...
We should also not waste this tragedy. History is full of incredible and amazing things that happened only because a tragedy forced people to make them happen. The Coronavirus pandemic is a different type of tragedy in the sense that it's actually given us all time and space (literally, social distancing and all) to slow down and think. Imagine that, real thinking. Some of us are even going next level, and not just thinking but pondering! (don't hurt yourself doing this). I want to challenge you to not waste this tragedy by making a plan to make use of the time because we have an unusual amount of it on our hands. Don't pick your head up from your phone in 4 weeks, 4 months, or however long this will take and realize that you wasted the tragedy. Here's how I recommend planning not to waste this tragedy...
Get up in the morning and go to bed at night the same time every single day. This creates a rhythm in your sleep cycle that your body appreciates and bookends the day well. John Mark Comer, in his book The Relentless Elimination of Hurry, makes an argument that our insanely busy society exploded with the advent of the electric light bulb. Before that, people woke up with the sun and went to be when it went down. Now's a good time to try some form of that rhythm since it seemed to work ok for all of human history up until about 150 years ago.
Get 7-8 hours of sleep every single night. There's piles and piles of research on how important this is to our mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health but we just can't seem to do it in the craziness of life...until the craziness of life involved a pandemic that requires social distancing.
Do the same things at the same time each day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, working out, zoom calls, checking emails, even when to look at your social media. Slot it all into the same time every day.
Begin your day, slowly and quietly, in God's Word and silence. In the midst of our mind-numbing busy lives there is a ton of research and writing beginning to emerge addressing the importance of being quiet and un-distracted. Cal Newport's 'Deep Work', Jarrett Stevens' 'Praying Through', John Mark Comer's 'The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry', and Clay Scroggins, 'How to Lead in a World of Distractions' are just a couple of the books that I've come across that touch in on this subject.
Do that one thing everyday that you have always said you wanted to start doing. Reading more? Exercising? Family game night? Journaling? What is it? We all have it and now is the time to start doing it!
John Maxwell, in his book 'The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth', states that there is no work-life balance. Rather, there are slow times and busy times and confusing the two leads to burnout. Some of us may feel that the slow-nature of the Coronavirus is a tragedy and on so many levels the Coronavirus is a tragedy. Let's just make sure we don't waste this tragedy by fussing and fuming over what we can't do when there is so many valuable things we could be doing.
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on
being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read
about it more here.
Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader and Director
of Athletics at The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida. He’s earned a few
degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school
sweetheart and they have three teen age children. Life is messy and complicated
most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter
for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.
Comments
Post a Comment