Covid-19 Anxiety, Find Your One Thing…

Covid-19 and social distancing for the last couple of weeks has been stressing me to my limit as it probably has for you too.  Being off my routine, in lockdown mode (I know, safe at home) worrying about business stuff and family stuff and with a lot fewer warm hugs has really knocked me off my game.  Can’t sleep, stress eating, not getting out to run (worsens everything) and a low level anxiety from everywhere have been the new norm…the negativity creeps on you and before you know it, it’s hitting you hard.  Thankfully, my friend Tim Cole sent me a link to an insightful article by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press which I really needed today.  Mitch writes about Knox who has an incredible story…a blessed ray of sunshine all the way from Haiti that helped Mitch find his one thing.BikeRideJoy

My one thing…this weekend, my 9 year old son finally learned to ride his bike overcoming a ton of anxiety.  He’s been putting it off for years.  There was a super stress moment and some tears but he pushed through and of course, once he got the hang of it he didn’t want to stop.  He rode about 8 miles before the day was done and he didn’t let me help in any of it except to cheer him from a distance and adjust the seat and the brakes a few times.  This win was all him!  I got a long warm hug for the assist and then he let go but came back and gave me a second long warm hug, bonus!  :)

In writing this I also realize for the umpteenth time, that we have rays of sunshine all around us all day every day.  We just have to get out of our funk and look for them.  Life’s best things are the littlest things right under our noses.

As these next days and weeks come and go, find your one thing(s), your rays of sunshine, and count your blessings.  And if you can, help someone else find theirs because we are all of us everywhere on quite the rollercoaster.  Thank you Mitch and thank you Tim!

What is your one thing?

 

Build Your Own Foundation

time-and-patienceIt’s good to look to others for support, guidance, affirmation, and praise so we know how well we are doing…that we are moving down the right path…finding our confidence…maybe saving time and energy by drawing on the success of others.  Looking to others too much though can be problematic.

It takes a strong foundation to build a home, or business, or anything that we want to endure.  That foundation is made of building blocks consisting of our core values, our convictions, our work ethic, our accomplishments…these blocks are strongest when they come from within.

Building blocks from others can be good and useful.  However, if the support or praise that was once positive and given freely is now retracted or turns negative, we may find ourselves with a weakened foundation…less sure of our path…less confident…facing fear and doubt…and poor performance.

Look to others for support and guidance but build your foundation from within…prepare, be self-aware, define your values, walk your path…with confidence…and find your success.  It may take longer.  It may be harder.  But it will come from within and it will be strong.

Rock on!

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