We all have stories. Stories of our youth and everything since then. For instance, we could recount how the world impacted us and how we impacted the world. Keeping your stories alive is a fun part of the process of re-living those halcyon days.
Before bed, I was telling the boys a few stories from my farming days in Canada. It struck me how few stories people probably know about others. It also made me think how the art of, and need for, storytelling are changing.
Imagine how many stories Captain Tom Moore has from his 100 year life. He was born in 1920. Consequently he would have had his formative years during the Great Depression. After that, he would have spent his early 20’s caught up in a World War.
His impression of the airplane, radio, tv, car, internet, medicine, political changes and mobile phones would be fascinating.
Unfortunately, many people’s stories will have faded into the fabric of the universe. The challenge was that there weren’t many ways to record them, keep them safe and pass them along.
Quite the opposite is happening now. Teens and tweens of today are able to capture so much on video, audio and by written word given the technology available at the moment. In the meantime, people are becoming more forthcoming with content. In addition, the ability to capture it has become easier and cheaper.
Keeping your stories alive may no longer be the challenge it once was. The new challenge may become that people won’t have or take the time, or have the inclination, to hear many of them.
Stories may no longer fade into the fabric of the universe but rather they might fade into the fabric of The Cloud.
Sometimes things get out of control. It may all seem to loom larger than life and you just need a little break. You’re allowed to have a night off.
With so many things to do, learn, read, discuss, figure out, sort out, pay for, etc, we can forget to relax. Our bodies and our minds need some time to relax and rejuvenate.
It can be great to just do nothing. Or read for pure pleasure. Or go to bed early and get an incredible night’s sleep. Once in a while, you should just do whatever you feel like, and enjoy it.
Entrepreneurs, career minded professionals, parents and people with all kinds of other commitments, need a break now and then.
Give yourself permission to enjoy a little ‘you’ time. You’re allowed to have a night off. Maybe you should schedule that in tonight. Hint hint.
How amazingly productive would we be if every day at work was like the day before we would go on holiday for two weeks? Time pressure is good!
What about exams? The last few days before an exam can often seem incredibly productive and focused.
There is something about a deadline which gets our attention and focus. For some reason, if there isn’t a deadline, we can putter around and prevaricate a little more than necessary. Not everyone is like this of course. And not everyone has the same deadline challenges.
Some people are structured and methodical at work and ensure projects are progressed well ahead or on schedule. That same person could be the type that nearly misses every plane they are booked on.
I used to be more casual with getting to the airport, but now I like to get there early. There is still the underlying pressure to pack, get in a cab and go. However, I prefer to have that packing pressure three to five days before the flight. It’s not perfect, but I am definitely getting better. Progress is also good.
And getting this daily blog written every day? Well, I’ve been getting better. Without the accountability of time, imagine how we might all drift through the days and years.
There is a lot you can do in this world but the most important thing you should consider is to do what brings joy. Life is short and it can take a long time to realise that. Spend the bulk of your life doing things that light you up like a thousand fireflies.
If your child likes a sport during one term or year, and not the next, don’t be concerned. Be happy that they are becoming self-aware and can acknowledge what they do and don’t enjoy. Of course there can be a myriad of other reasons why someone might start or stop an activity. However, regardless of the reason, when they don’t want to go, sometimes it’s best to let go.
It is the same for adults. Let go of those things you aren’t enjoying. Find better activities or thoughts that you can allow into your life. As Steve Jobs mentions in the brief address below, if you don’t like doing something for too many days in a row, it is time to change.
When deciding what to do next in your life, do what brings joy. You’ll be happier doing it, happier in general and those around you will appreciate it too.
It’s easy to zip through a day and not really even notice it. We can all probably remember just going through the motions. Enjoying the day, however, that is a real skill. Being present and savouring the moments is critical. Remember to stop and smell those roses.
Today really was one of those days. Being present with my wife and children, for the whole day, was wonderful. Playing a family game of Ticket to Ride was good fun. Listening to the laughter from the kids upstairs, playing chase, was a delight. Watching the wet sponge battle in the garden, and then the funny water bucket challenge, was pure joy.
There were so many moments that had me smiling all day. With a temperature of 25C, clear skies and sunshine galore, it was a fabulous day.
I hope you had a wonderful Easter. I know not everyone will have, and our thoughts were with them throughout the day.
If you found yourself enjoying the day, I hope you are as grateful as I am for finding the joy in it.
Depending on how the new normal has impacted you, there could be some challenges in keeping a schedule. You may be far busier than usual, at one end of the spectrum, or drifting through the day with little to do, at the other end.
Either way, it is important to be keeping a schedule. People generally perform better, feel calmer and are more productive if they keep to a regular schedule. Now schedules can shift a little as life changes but it is good to keep some habits in place as much as possible.
Getting to bed at a good time and getting up at a consistent time, with a decent amount of sleep in between (7-8 hours), is a good start. The rest of your day, you can plan out in the evening before going to bed. Then the trick is to get the things done that are on your list or calendar, in the time allocated for each item. Do this and you will increase your productivity, sense of control and your confidence.
Set a schedule for your top priorities and you will be well ahead of the game. The smaller bits and less important items will get done around the edges, some other time or never. That is ok.
The last couple of weeks I have been feeling a little rudderless as all the scheduling seemed to disappear from my life. It was fun to drift along and spend time with my family, read, write and eat. However, I noticed my increasing desire to get back to a schedule. It certainly has helped me be more productive and feel more in control of my day again.
If you are not keeping a schedule: Start. If you are keeping one, make sure it is working well for you.
Coronavirus Exit Strategy: Use empty hotels to develop Herd Immunity
Stopping this market meltdown, and the fast growing financial and social challenges, requires two things:
1. Making livelihoods our absolute focus (while still saving lives impacted by Coronavirus and managing hospital beds) and
2. Providing a clearly defined end date to this situation. This can be done by immediately starting to develop herd immunity by creating a Government Organised Voluntary Infection (GOVI) programme, for healthy people, in all the UK’s empty hotels
The Problem:
The market, and people generally, require certainty so they can move forward confidently. Currently there is no certainty when considering the end to this pandemic*. Hoping for a viable vaccine provides no certainty. It is like hoping to win the lottery: It’s worth trying, but don’t count on it as your only strategy.
The Solution:
We need a clear, time-bound exit strategy that can show progress is happening and has a clearly defined end date. A GOVI programme would do both.
GOVI explained:
While people are self-isolating in this Suppression Phase, we can roll out a government organised voluntary infection (GOVI) programme at designated hotels (all UK hotels). The GOVI programme would be similar to the idea of chicken pox parties, where healthy children would get together with an infected child and get infected to be done with it. If 50%-80% of the healthy 6-60 population are going to get the Coronavirus at some time anyway, with mostly mild symptoms, why not get it over with?
For WWII, people volunteered to fight in the war effort knowing that there was a significant risk of death or serious injury. These recruits were checked for being in good health (i.e. no underlying conditions) and then sent off to battle the enemy. With more than 700,000 (mostly empty) hotel rooms in the UK alone, the government could pay hotels to host people who are 20-50 years old, and with no underlying conditions, who volunteer to contract the virus under supervision. They would get checked out by a GP, and if ok, they would go to a government designated hotel where they would contract the virus and stay in the hotel for 7-10 days, until ‘immune’. The volunteers are then checked/tested by a doctor before leaving the hotel to confirm their immunity. Once immune, the volunteer gets a document and badge noting that they can re-enter society.
The government would need to authorise and organise this phase to maintain a controlled spread of the virus. They would need to set out the plan of action, acknowledge the challenges and risks involved and call out for suitable volunteers.
GOVI benefits :
In theory we could have c.700,000 very low risk people gaining immunity every 10 days. Over the next 12 weeks (84 days), we could have roughly 5 million people gaining immunity. This could be happening while the 70+ group and the Underlying Condition (UC) group are protected through self-isolation. Additionally, we could continue to have strong social distancing/lockdown policies in place (Suppression Phase), continue testing and encourage scientists to search for and progress a possible vaccine: all concurrently.
It’s more Churchill D-Day then Chamberlain “Peace for our time”. Let’s take the battle to the enemy rather than try to avoid the inevitable. Advance on the enemy rather than simply shield the citizens from harm.
A war time army of volunteers is required and I believe many would be willing to do this. Since there seems to be an overwhelmingly high recovery rate for healthy people aged 18-50 (99.7%), let’s get it and get on with it.
The ever-growing Immune Army can then help high risk people, relieve care workers, support hospital workers and others, or just get back to work. Ever more volunteers will spend a week in the designated hotels until huge swathes of the population are immune.
Within one year, about half of the young and healthy population (25 million people) in the UK will be immune, without having overrun the NHS. In 2 years, most under 70’s and those without known underlying conditions would have immunity (c.55 million). After communicating this plan, normalcy will start to return in weeks to months, demand will return, markets will stop the slide and maybe reverse, and the world can start to mend.
Summary:
Without creating certainty with a credible exit strategy, the markets will continue in meltdown, workers will be laid off, industries will collapse, and the government will have to finance the entire economy, possibly for years. Adding a GOVI programme in parallel to the other strategies/phases being employed, could greatly improve our chances of saving the most lives, from all causes. In addition, the GOVI programme will also put a floor in the economy with a certain and time-bound exit strategy, which will stop the markets sliding. Finally, this additional strategy could save billions of people from suffering through the severe, drawn out, Depression era future that the trends seem to indicate we are heading for.
Link to Mervyn King on CNBC, on Monday, referring to no viable exit strategy, from minute 8:45 to 9:20 (so 35 seconds long).
* Link to Mervyn King on CNBC, on Monday, referring to no viable exit strategy, from minute 8:45 to 9:20 (so 35 seconds long).
FIND MORE DETAIL:
I have added several follow up thoughts for you on my blog website page called Coronavirus Exit Strategy: GOVI. Points covered consider the next 2-3 years and our options. I’ve also added some sources and supporting detail,
For some, this is a great time to take stock and think through what they truly want to do in this life. For others, it may have become so crazy busy that they don’t have a moment to pause and think about anything other than the next government announcement and its implications.
Without all the usual kids activities and appointments to arrange and get to, some people may have a few extra minutes (hours) in their day. Or maybe you no longer need to “get ready and commute”, so you may have a little more time now.
For those of you with a little extra time, this is a great opportunity to consider what kind of life you want to look back on when you are 85 years old. What do you want to remember when you are going through your photo albums or chatting to friends or younger relatives. Life flies by quickly, so don’t delay.
Block out an hour in your calendar on a day this week. Be specific with exactly what hour and day it is. It is an appointment with yourself. Then, when that time comes, do nothing else other than reflect and write out a list of things you would love to do, be or have in your life, between now and 85 (125 if you’re already well up there).
Just write all the things that come to mind. Ideally you will do an electronic list which you can save and sort out later on. But it could also be written on a sheet of paper or in a journal. You can always take a photo of it and file it on a device for easy finding later on.
The list does not have to be realistic, believable, conventional, exciting or anything really. What it should be though is a specific list of things on your mind and in your imagination. It could be things like: Spending two weeks on a golden sand beach in the Caribbean, helping your grandson learn French, walking on Mars, writing a funny novel, buying some art from a local artist, becoming a pilot, writing a letter to a loved one, collecting rare stamps or watching The Bucket List (enjoyable movie to get your thoughts flowing – good for most kids too).
This list-writing can be a challenge. Some find this exercise easy and some difficult. Either way, I suggest you do it. Now is a good time. It will give you a focus on things you are looking forward to, once we get life back to something approaching normal. It also helps you clarify what is important. Have fun with it.
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.
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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