As we come out of the isolation made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have an unprecedented opportunity to shift our lives into ones of our choosing. Rather than taking things as they were, we can look at what we desire our lives to be and shift in that direction.
To that end, I am going to run a series of articles about the areas to look at and how to edit your life. These articles will go for some weeks, and encompass the following:
- Commitments. Many of us have seen commitments fall off because we can’t gather in person. Do you miss them? Feel relieved? We’ll take a look at how to purge what no longer serves.
- Consumption. Most of us have stopped consuming in one way or another during this time. Fuel consumption is down as we don’t travel into the office. What else have you cut back on? We’ll look at how to determine your new consumption level and see how it fits going forward.
- Hobbies. With all the free time on your hands, you probably picked up a hobby you hadn’t touched in a while. Or maybe you had to abandon a hobby because of the restrictions. We’ll take a look at this shift and determine which hobbies to keep.
- Expenses. Not everyone was lucky enough to keep their jobs. With millions laid off or furloughed, suddenly the money wasn’t coming in. Even those of us who have kept our jobs have cut back on expenses as the places to spend money dwindled. We’ll look at your new level of expenses and strategies to adjust them in the face of the global recession.
- Ambitions/Projects. Some things were not possible under the isolation. Maybe it was a project you couldn’t get material for. Maybe it was a class that was canceled. We’ll look at the impact of the isolation on our projects, and how to determine which ones to let go of permanently.
- Relationships. Most of us didn’t see family and friends during this time. Was that a good thing? Was the uptick in social media a boon for your relationships, or did it awaken you to disturbing things in people you thought you knew well? We’ll look at the impact of the isolation on our relationships and how to strengthen or let go of them.
While I don’t think life will ever go back to the way it was before COVID, I do believe that we will move into a different phase. We can take this opportunity to implement the lessons learned during our isolation to edit our lives and make them better.
