This is the first of a series of short posts exploring life and love during these unprecedented times of COVID-19.

To say that the past month has been a strange one would be an extreme understatement. I can’t actually tell you how many days the “Stay At Home” order has been in effect in Illinois. Or how many days my children have been home from school. To be totally honest, I’m not even sure what day of the week it is. And I’m not really sure if those statements should scare me or not.

For the first time, in a very long time, I feel at ease. Which is odd for me. I’m a planner, with a color-coordinated calendar of my children’s schedules and activities. I have a list of daily tasks and to-do’s for my own personal business (which has come to an abrupt halt amid Corona), as well as for my home, my family, and myself. While this change to our life, routines, and schedules has been an adjustment, we are still choosing to live a life on purpose around here. And that’s not something that just happens.

Choosing to live in the here and in the now isn’t easy. As strange, awkward, and uncomfortable as it is, we are choosing to see the immense opportunity we have been given. Now is the time to see this as a unique gift. Won’t you join us?

No time like the present

Do you know what the biggest catalyst for change is? It’s a pivotal moment. And if this moment in time isn’t pivotal, I’m not sure what else is. Maybe life looks no different to you than it did before. But maybe it should. While we are here, while we are in this, life doesn’t need to be put on pause.

It’s time to stop waiting for what happens after this is over. It’s time to continue living, to continue thriving, and to continue pursuing a life that is worth living. It’s not about who we want to be when life goes back to normal as much as it is about what we want our new normal to be after this is over.

People really are taking advantage of this extra time at home by doing things they never get to—cleaning out closets and dressers, rebuilding decks and finishing basements. We are all taking time to refresh and rebuild our homes, but what are we doing to refocus and refresh our goals, dreams, passions and our lives?

I want to challenge you to use some of this time to look at yourself and your life. What will we decided to cast aside? What things and stuff are no longer necessary? What no longer serves us? What are things that we will decide to pursue? These decisions that we make in the here and in the now will be more telling about who we really than anything else ever will. We don’t have to be who we were when this started. The world will need people who are better, braver, and bolder.

Stop complaining

Did you ever notice how easy it is to complain? I don’t remember ever having to teach any of my children to whine or cry or complain. I do, however, remember teaching them how to choose joy and how to learn to persevere.

It would be very easy to sit here and complain about all the things that have been “taken away” from us, or all the ways life isn’t meeting our expectations during this time. It’s easy to complain. It’s easy to moan.  But it takes effort to rise up. To do hard things.

So let’s just stop. Stop dead in your tracks right now and make a list.  What are you GRATEFUL for today. Let’s start with gratitude. List the people, the places, the things, the stuff—big and small. List the lessons you’ve learned so far — those truths, as cliché as they sound, that really resonate with you right now.

Don’t you already feel better?

Take inventory

Now that you’re in the right head space, it’s time to take inventory. No, not an inventory of your groceries or toilet paper. Because let’s be real, we all have more than enough toilet paper and pasta in our closets and cupboards. It’s time to get to work.

This isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s going to take some time to really do this, so be prepared. It may take multiple attempts. You may not even know the answers at first. And that’s ok. It’s ok to sit alone with your thoughts and wrestle to find the answers you may have been putting off.

First, try taking an inventory of your health, your friends, your finances, your spiritual and personal growth, you relationship with your spouse or significant other, your family, your job, and your hobbies. Rate each one from one to ten. What areas are strong? What areas are weak? Why?

Make note of your strengths, but look for areas that need time and effort and growth and focus in on those. Then, ask yourself, what’s working right now and what’s not? 

Lastly, look at your passions and your fears. What fires you up? If you could do anything, what would you do? And why would you do it?  What are you afraid of? What’s holding you back?

These are BIG questions, and it make take you a long time to figure out that answers. And that’s ok because for most of us right now, we have all the time in the world.

Take advantage

There’s no time like the present to decide what your new normal will be. We ultimately have three options; freeze, flee or fight. You can freeze and let this crisis overwhelm you. You can flee and pretend it’s not happening. Or, you can fight and emerge stronger than you were. Consider the current present a gift and get started.  

Will it be perfect? No. Will you have all the answers? Also no. But you can’t let that stop you or hold you back from taking the first step in the right direction. It’s in our attempts that learning and growing begin. Better to run scared toward something, than to run scared from it.

So ask yourself, who are you? Who do you want to be? What do you want to do? And once you’ve figured that out. Then it’s time to START doing and to START being. Will you be bold enough to relentlessly pursue a life that matters? We hope you will.