“‘Cause I feel our time has come
And we can walk down to the ocean,
And sit with the rising sun”
– Dustin Bushnell / Jared Watson / Roman Rene Ramirez -The Dirty Heads
Coronas on the beach anyone? Not for me, despite all this Covid business. However, a walk down to the ocean would be nice.
I know I said the last part was the conclusion but I have to add this another part because I started writing this series before the ‘rona hit and there are brain eaters as a result. I thought I would share on some of my covid brain eaters.
Of course, during a time like this there fear. The uncertainty of what will happen today. Will we make enough today to stay open another day? Will we even survive this pandemic? Will we still be around when this passes and things return to normal? Will there ever be a normal again? What will I do if this doesn’t work out?
Fear; it consumes and eats me away from the inside out. Fear pushes me to the edge and for some, over. As you can see if you look closely at all the fear based questions, they all have to do with the future. How can I combat that fear? The first thing is get back in the moment. Fear is never present-based, unless one is in eminent danger, of course. Most of the time, the fear is about something in the future that I think might happen. To mitigate that and weaken the fear I need to realize that I am good right now. Any of the three things I discussed in the previous part, writing, meditation, or exercise, help me to do this. Once I bring myself back to the present and understand that in this moment I am good, the fear begins to subside. It is important to realize that fear can only feed on what offer it.
Another big one during this pandemic is resentment. When fear has a thorn in me I am already off balance and sensitive to my environment. People have been acting much different during all this. Some have been a great example of what a good neighbor really is and has restored some of my faith in humanity. Others, however, have demonstrated the darker side of the human race. So I judge and get resentful.
Fear and resentment is a dangerous cocktail so I have to do something to rid myself of them otherwise I usually end doing something that I regret. Again, the three things above help a lot. I also talk to others and share what I am thinking and feeling and that takes much of the power out of whatever I am tripping on. Just like fear, resentment can only survive if I feed it.
Enough of the bad brain eaters, how about some good ones? Ideas! The entrepreneurial tendencies never subside, even during a pandemic. The ideas have been flowing because those squirrels have been working overtime. Part of it is definitely the survival instinct kicking in because the reality is this is life or death for my two main businesses right now.
I need to be focusing on ideas that will help them survive. Change is always part of business. The ability to adapt and change course is imperative to survival. I have made it this far in business because of I have been able to make tweaks to adapt to the changes that happen beyond my control. There are so many external factors like regulations, administrations, competitors, disruptive technology, just to name a few.
I would definitely put pandemic on that list as well. The ones I listed about are very common, a pandemic is not. A business often has things in place to respond to the common changes but not pandemics. Fortunately, they do not happen that often. This current coronavirus pandemic, however, is definitely proving to be a major force to reckon with for businesses. Especially when one business is a restaurant and the other is travel dependant.
Currently, the ideas are winning the brain eating battle in my head. The fear and resentments has subsided and only make rare cameo appearances. When they do I quickly take their food away. This pandemic has really opened my eyes to the reality that it can really change the way we do things moving forward after the threat of the virus passes. As a result, I am focusing on both present and future ideas. I need to first focus on ideas that are going to keep the businesses alive through the day, and then I need to look at ideas that focus on our long term survival.
That’s what is currently eating my brain.
Talk Soon,
Kevin W. @Leap272
Owner – Operator
You have to leap if you want to live.
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