CategoriesActionGratitudeHealth & FitnessReframe your thoughts

Happy Mother’s Day! ?

Please do not go and see your mother today. It is the greatest gift you can give her. Yes, it is Mother’s Day in the UK on Sunday 22nd of March 2020, but please do not go to visit.

Your Mother gave you life and the most important thing you can do at this time is help protect hers.

My marvellous Mom lives 3,300 miles away, across an ocean, so there is little chance, in this no-fly era, that I would go and see her today anyway. But for those of you that live close enough to drive, or even walk, I strongly urge you to use Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, etc. or you can simplify and just call her on the phone.

The very last thing you want on your conscience, for the rest of your life, is to think that you may have caused your Mother’s early passing. If she were to come down with the symptoms of this virus within 14 days of your visit, you would probably never forgive yourself. Don’t take that chance this year.

And don’t use the justification that she is getting on and may not have many more, so we want to make this one special. Don’t turn many more into no more.

Have a lovely video chat or a phone call. Remember, she probably grew up in an era where people used the telephone anyway. It will remind her of the days of her youth.

If you really want to make an impact, by reminding her how wonderful she is and how much she means to you, spend the rest of your day crafting a lovely letter to her detailing why. You could even get it done in the morning.

Thank you and best wishes to all of the lovely Mother’s out there.

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CategoriesActionGratitudeObserveReframe your thoughts

The Bright Side

There is always a bright side.

Sometimes we don’t see it and sometimes we don’t want to see it. If we are still reeling from an event or situation, we may not feel like looking on the bright side.

Whether you see it, don’t want to see it or don’t feel like embracing it, it is still there. Once you step over the little chasm in your mind, and sometimes begrudgingly admit it, it does feel pretty good. So why not get to that spot and start smiling as soon as you can.

From today, soon or recently for others, many of us will be experiencing the new normal. We may enjoy the idea of bits of it and loathe the thought of other bits. Either way, this is our global new normal. So we may as well look on the bright side.

Here are a few things I’ve observed:

It feels so calm. The streets are quiet with very few cars or pedestrians. We just need to be at home – nowhere else. No detailed and challenging calendars to check or update. Time with my son – we went for a run today along the quiet river path and enjoyed a great chat and sprint to the finish: he’s fast. We celebrated a big birthday of a friend on a Zoom conference call involving 3 countries. We cheered on two others having birthdays on Saturday and Sunday too.

People have been friendly, helpful, supportive, calm, pretty optimistic and resolute. Air and general pollution seems to be dropping rapidly and should continue to do so during the new normal period. This is fantastic in general but even more so for all the people that wanted more immediate and severe action on climate change – now it is happening. Schooling is going 100% online – how fascinating it will be to see how it works.

The world has changed. It seems like it happened overnight. There will be challenges ahead.

Remember to look on the bright side of everything. Make it part of your new normal.

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CategoriesActionGratitudeTime

We’re All In This Together

What a fascinating time to be here on Earth. What a story you’ll have to tell once we see the back of this situation. This may be the first time in the history of the human species that the whole world has the same common enemy, at the same time, and is communicating in real time, globally, to coordinate and win.

And we all have front row seats.

We are all experiencing this event with slightly different perspectives, depending on what experience, and life awareness, we have had before. For example, despite living in the same household all their lives, each of my children will use their slightly different past experience to make sense of the times we are living through. And, despite everyone on Earth having different perspectives, it would seem that we all want the same outcome: To beat the bug.

I love how individuals and groups are stepping up and popping up to do great things together and for others. Whether it is the medical or scientific world pulling together to find solutions or community spirited groups providing extra help in the local neighbourhood. Our neighbourhood group put a typed note through everyone’s door this week with an offer to help anyone on the street, for them to join the group Whatsapp, and/or call on them if we needed anything (it gave names, numbers and emails of those ready to help). How wonderful! Being fairly new to the street, I felt it was a great idea and really made us feel part of a caring group.

Everyone seems to be pulling together to make the best of the situation. Whether it is with jokes, memes, words of encouragement or empathy, I’ve been struck by the wonderful humanity of it all.

Now is our time to rise to the occasion. Be the best you can possibly be. Help others who are struggling at this moment. Think of who that might be and let them know you are available. Just knowing can be all some people need.

Keep confident and smiling.

We’re all in this together.

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CategoriesActionThink About It

Be Clear About What You Can Do

In fast paced and challenging times, it can be good to pause, breathe deeply and remember the following:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can

And wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Do what you can do today to make it a great day despite the bumps in the road.

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CategoriesActionFinancialGoals, Results & New ThinkingProgressReframe your thoughtsThink About ItTime

The Coronavirus Decision: Save Lives or Livelihoods?

Do we allow up to 264 million people to die worldwide while trying to maintain livelihoods globally or do we attempt to save those people, while corporate, government and personal finances, and therefore all livelihoods, are shredded beyond recognition?

Save lives or save livelihoods? That is the big picture, tough decision that Governments, and their citizens, need to consider, and fairly quickly.

I outlined some of the key considerations in my post the other day which you can access by clicking here.

Most people will have an automatic gut reaction to what is the ‘right’ answer. Try putting that reaction on pause, gather some info, and really think through the next year of unintended consequences. Think like a President or Prime Minister who has to consider millions of others in all their different circumstances.

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CategoriesActionProgressReframe your thoughts

Rise Like A Phoenix

Life is going to throw stuff at you. There will be days filled with uncertainty, bleakness and enduring pain. Your head will spin. Your thoughts will collide.

You are not down and out. You will overcome this. Stand up and straighten your back. Lift your shoulders and your head. ‘Bring it on’, I say. You’re in this for the long run. You can handle the speed bumps of life.

Whether it is work related, your relationship, your finances, the coronavirus, your fitness levels, or perhaps all of them are crashing at once, you can still rise.

Know that you will persevere for however long it takes. You will not stop until you have risen back up and spread your wings. You will feel the sunshine on your face again and life will be wonderful.

Keep your eyes on the future. Know it gets better. Believe you can rise up from the ashes of past glories and rebuild again.

Quickly restart and soar!

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CategoriesActionHealth & FitnessReframe your thoughts

You Did It!!

You never really believed you would do it. Some friends said it would never happen. Somehow you were able to plug away at it, in your spare time and you made it quite an achievement. A fantastic accomplishment.

Remember to give yourself a pat on the back and to stand tall for every little and large achievement in your life. It’s important to set goals and work towards them. However, you need to remember to celebrate often. Whatever that looks like these days (wine, meditation, favourite chocolate bar, gym time or a snooze button).

When you sign up to something, it is important to move it forward and to see it through. It makes you feel good that you accomplished something.

I recently mentioned that I was giving ? soon. Well, today was the day. It all went well, I am happy to report. I feel a little lighter and someone will have the benefit of my A+ blood to help them through whatever difficult time they are having. It was a nice feeling to donate. (Well, not the pin prick on the finger or the needle going in the arm, but those were overshadowed.)

I celebrated with some lemonade, some club bars and a lovely packet of salt & vinegar crisps. Perfect.

With what’s going on in the world, get out there and do something life changing. Let me know what it is!

Life saving activity in under an hour. No training required. Who is next?
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CategoriesActionFinancialObserveReframe your thoughtsThink About It

Coronavirus End Game

7.8 billion people infected. 264 million COVID-19 related deaths globally. Of which, 80% were over 60 years old with more than 75% of those having an underlying health issue.

These numbers represent the end game – the potential worst case scenario, at current trends, given the World Health Organisation mortality rate, if every person on the planet where to be infected.

Should the media and its readers really be counting up by ones and tens for each new country, each new city with a confirmed case and each new death? The sooner we can accept that this has the potential to create extremely difficult times, the sooner we can move on and keep what is good, still going.

By that I mean that if we do have the tragic human toll either way (sooner or later), let’s not have a disastrous financial toll too. This is because the financial toll could lead to all sorts of other challenges and human suffering as companies go bust, people lose their jobs and incomes, and then payments for cars, houses, rent, food, medicines etc aren’t made. Then we would have a very harsh economic challenge as well as rising mortality numbers.

In my thoughts, there are three ‘Best case’ outcomes:

  1. Find a cure in March or April 2020: Then all is good. (If not, economic challenges will become severe and worsening)
  2. We quarantine it out of existence such that not one single person has it and then we go back to normal (This could be several months, or more, as we don’t know exactly who has it and there is a carrier lag due to a 14 day incubation period)
  3. We accept it is happening and carry on as normal while changing some habits (no handshakes, wash hands frequently, minimise contact with others while we carry on as normal). We would continue to fly, meet, attend sporting events and conferences etc., while being more cautious, especially around older people.

A fiscal stimulus will not solve this alone. If people are staying home from work and social events – out of concern or government mandates, and they are not producing or consuming as much as before – for the same reasons, then economies will quickly start to falter as airlines, hotels, university sandwich shops, retailers and banks fail, one at a time, in ever rapid succession.

Perhaps we should be carrying on while accepting that there will be significant deaths. If we don’t, and if we don’t find a cure or quarantine it out of existence, the descent into exceptionally hard economic times could be imminent. This could come with severe societal shocks due to high levels of insolvencies and unemployment, a credit freeze and growing crime and unrest.

In addition, there is no amount of stockpiling you can do that will get you through to the end of this, either: unless a cure is found in March, latest April. If supply chains slow down, the real impact will be many months away, not weeks.

This may become our generational thing to get through like all those who had to endure WWI, The Spanish Flu, The Great Depression, WWII and/or the Cold War. Except for the destruction of the wars, this might be all those wrapped up in one. Or not. No one knows how exactly this will all play out.

No one wants to be the person or family infected. But then no one wants to be hit by a car, be told they have cancer or have a heart attack. These are all random events that can impact us or our families and friends at any time. Yet we still go about our days: despite knowing any number of things could send us off to meet our maker. We simply take precautions. We look before crossing the street and eat healthy and exercise. Now we’ll wash our hands more too.

Yes, it’s a little more scary than the other main ways to pass, mainly because it’s new and there is uncertainty.

However, we need to keep calm and carry on. Otherwise, we could make matters far worse.

Accept the end game as a worst case, wash your hands well and frequently, tell important people what you should (sooner rather than later), eat well and exercise so your body is at its best – in case you need to do battle with this virus (or any other life, or lifestyle, threatening situation).

Hopefully the incredibly clever people around the world will discover a cure in the weeks to come. Hopefully it is quarantined out of existence. Hopefully everyone develops an immunity to it.

Regardless, the end game is that 7.55 billion people should survive this flu virus. Odds are you’ll be fine. Most families, however, will be impacted in some way. Be empathetic. Be kind. Be generous where you can.

Just keep calm and carry on.

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