One of the things that COVID-19 gave us all is time. Before the pandemic happened, we were too busy going about our business and affairs that we always complained about not having enough time for other things in life.
Pre-COVID, a lot of people found themselves not having enough time for their loved ones. Parents missed some important occasions that their kids are involved in like football games, school plays, recognition days, and other similar things that may be trivial to adults but mean the world to kids.
We compromised our health because we just couldn’t find the time to hit the gym and exercise with all the time that work eats up. And speaking of eating, we didn’t have enough time in our schedule to shop for ingredients and prepare healthy homecooked meals so we opt to just go for the convenient and quick fast food joints.
We often were burned out because we felt like we didn’t have time for our own well-being. We cannot pursue any new and interesting hobbies. We couldn’t go on trips whether it’s with family or on our own. We couldn’t sit down at a coffee shop and enjoy a nice cup of coffee or tea and chat with our pals and gal pals. It was as if work was our only life and we lived to work.
But that shouldn’t be the case. We should work to live and our lives should never just revolve around work no matter how important and crucial a part it is to our existence.
There’s gotta be more to life
Getting busy with work is a good thing. It means you’re being productive or at least trying to. There’s nothing wrong with working hard. In fact, we all should work hard. That should be a given. After all, success doesn’t usually come by chance. We get it from putting in the hours and paying our dues.
Imagine how real estate agents can provide for their families if they don’t go through the entire process needed to close deals on affordable house and land packages. They need to put in the work of looking for properties, getting all the paperwork and documents done, making appointments and talking to a lot of people involved in the sales process, going to properties, and all the legwork that needs to be done in the entire house-acquisition process.
It’s the same with any other industry. There are no shortcuts to success. However, our lives shouldn’t just be all about work. We should never forget why we work hard in the first place. And this is where time comes in handy. The time that the pandemic has brought us gives us the luxury of reflecting on how we’re living our lives.
An unexpected gift from the most unexpected source
Perhaps for the first time ever, most of us were truly on our own during the pandemic. Even if we spent the quarantine with our families, we were still somewhat isolated from everything else that took away our time. A lot of us discovered plenty of things about ourselves that both disappointed and amazed us.
We were given the time to be introspective and really reflect upon the important things in life and the things that truly matter the most to us. It showed how much time we spent on meaningless pursuits. While work is important, we found out that some of us sacrificed time with our loved ones, the real reasons why we work hard in the first place. We became too consumed with our careers and other pursuits that in our minds would make our families proud of us that we have set them aside and neglected them. We became resentful of them when they asked for our time because we only saw our so-called sacrifices to make life better for them.
A lot of us have also fallen into the trap of neglecting ourselves; how we compromised our health and well-being in exchange for our dreams and ambitions.
But on the other hand, all that time in quarantine also allowed us to recollect ourselves and redefine our priorities. Those who were brave enough to face the brutal truth about themselves now had the opportunity to make things better moving forward. All of a sudden, families started to become emotionally closer with one another. People’s priorities were readjusted to align with values and what they value most. Folks started to look after themselves and their health and well-being. We all know how we would want to move forward post-pandemic because we were able to take a good hard look at our lives and what we’ve made of it and now have the chance to make things better.
While it is arguably not the time for silver linings given the devastation that COVID-19 has caused worldwide, it should be a good wake-up call for those who have missed the mark the first time.
The pandemic made most of us realize that there’s more to life than just our daily grind and ambitious pursuits. It opened our eyes to the things that we took for granted. It has given us the power to change our lives by embracing our mistakes and learning from them so that we can truly live our lives to the full alongside the people that matter to us.