Column: Accelerate Your Growth In Lockdown

[Written by Agathe Holowatinc]

Welcome to the lockdown!

I hope this post finds you and your loved ones safe, healthy, optimistic, and strong.

So, we have 14 days to spend at home, this period has just begun, and today I’d like to talk about your mindset going into this.

I know it’s a long post, but please enjoy reading it – it just might shift your focus in a positive direction right now.

You’re at home. Maybe you get to work remotely or perhaps the nature of your work doesn’t allow you to do so. Maybe you see this is as a vacation, or maybe you’re unsure exactly what you’ll do. Maybe you’re suffering from anxiety, boredom, or a bit of depression or stress, and maybe you’re not excited about spending this much time with your family. Maybe you’re enjoying being lazy today…but how long will that last?

The truth is that no matter your situation, if you’re at home, I would like to present an idea to you here that might be of real benefit to you from the get-go:

I want you to embrace this period as a time of accelerated personal growth. I want you to light up your life during lockdown so that you can come out stronger, smarter, and more successful!

First of all, this post was inspired weeks ago when I noticed that as my clients transitioned from office life to working remotely, and now into lockdown, a lot of negative things happened at first. Frustrating IT issues arose, children interrupted meetings, uncertainty about the future and employment status took hold of some, while others worked around the clock from home without breaks, skipping breakfast, and the list goes on.

It caused me to stop and think. We sure can become completely consumed by all of these negative events and stressful thoughts….and miss out on a massive opportunity. In cases like this, a course correction can be very beneficial. As we know, where attention goes, energy flows. Those negative thoughts become your life.

Think about this: There are things you can control, and things you cannot, and believe it or not, your mindset is one of them.

So – let’s talk about how you’re going into this lockdown period.

The way I see it, and what I’ve been teaching, is that we have this gift of two weeks at home – so what are you going to do with it? We have this time that can be likened to being in a cocoon – and what happens in a cocoon? Transformation.

And that is transformation for the better. To clarify, I’m not talking about:

“So, is anyone else going to be a heavy-drinking, Netflix watching, macrame expert who no longer fits in their pre-pandemic clothes because they decided to bake six dozen cookies for solo consumption, after this is all over?” [author shall remain nameless].

I’m talking about caterpillar-into-butterfly; that type of transformation. The caterpillar-into-butterfly evolution.

Ask yourself today: What am I going to do here at home in these next 2 weeks [and who knows how much longer] to become stronger, smarter and more successful when I come out on the other side?

That’s what I’ve been thinking about. Truly. What am I going to do to propel my goals and myself forward during this time?

Think about these for yourself:

• Do you have body goals? – How about lifting things in the house [if you don’t have weights], starting a jogging practice going in circles around your neighbourhood, getting stronger abs, stronger arms, more muscular glutes, a flat stomach or even a six pack?

• Do you have cooking/nutrition/goals? – Some of us will come out as amazing chefs! While some will have binged on chips.

• Do you have education goals? – Can you upskill in a subject area and take a course online?

• Do you have career goals? – Can you learn that software program, enhance your website or promote your brand in any way?

• Do you have financial goals? – Can this be a time that you do an audit of all of your expenses and see where you can create massive savings that you can apply to bigger deal items that will make a real difference to your quality of life?

• Do you have family goals? – Great time to be trying for a baby if that was in your plans for Spring [haha]! Or maybe your kids can reconnect with their overseas grandparents over Skype, Facetime or WhatsApp? Maybe you can get to know your children or spouse better?

• Do you have friendship goals? – How about connecting with old friends overseas you haven’t spoken to in a while?

• Do you have intimate relationship goals or goals for your sex life? – How about learning your partner’s love language and practicing showing them you love them to the moon and back every day so you can rekindle the passion and connection you lost in the busy-ness of your normal day to day schedules?

• Do you have self-love goals? – Have you become so disconnected with yourself lately that you could really use some time to rest yourself, wear comfy clothing, give your tired feet a spa day, dream a dream of what’s to be [because the best is yet to come my dear]..?

• Do you have goals for your home environment? – Great time to fix those things around the house, make the garden look amazing, train the dogs or build the furniture you’ve been putting off building for a while.

• Do you have goals for your creativity? – How about writing music, poetry, letters, love songs, or perfecting your makeup application skills, pottery skills, or painting?

• Do you have goals for your sense of peace and well-being? – How about starting a meditation practice or buying an audiobook on Audible that interests you in the area of spirituality. Or even finding and listening to free YouTube videos by Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Gabrielle Bernstein or Marianne Williamson?
• The list goes on….

That is what I’m taking about. When you come out of this time of social isolation – are you going to be looking leaner with great abs and harder biceps, knowing how to mix a mean green detox smoothie, rocking your favourite clothes again, feeling happier, sexier, rested, more connected with yourself and your loved ones/others, as well as noticeably smarter and more successful from hours of reading, studying and upskilling? Will you propel your career further upon exiting this period?

Will your house look amazing and will your significant other, family near and far, and pets be all loved up? Come on now!

Think about it – we are entering a period of cocooning and you have what it takes to make this time amazing. All you need to do is make a a decision about what you want to be/have/feel at the end of this period and then make that a priority through self-discipline, visualization [to keep the dream alive!], drive and daily action.

And, if you’re really fired up, then find someone who will hold you accountable. Someone who can be tough with you, who is committed to your best outcomes, like a coach [like me] or anyone else you know who cares enough to make sure you succeed.

It might be hard some days as challenges show up – laziness, small setbacks, distractions at home, falling back into your comfort zone, etc. – but our minds are amazing! We have the power to use our brains to achieve health happiness and spiritual/emotional/intellectual growth. If you’d like to deep dive into that subject, I would highly recommend the fascinating book ‘Super Brain’ by Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD and Deepak Chopra, M.D. [2012], which I actually found in audiobook format unabridged for free on YouTube. Check it out!

This book explains how the brain can be taught to reach far beyond it’s present limitations. It even includes examples of what your thoughts look like in “Baseline Brain” vs. “Super Brain” – A real Game Changer kind of book perfect for this period of transformation.

Okay, and if you still aren’t sure what you’d like to focus on during the lockdown, might I suggest looking back to what is arguably the best and most famous success book ever written?

The first book to boldly ask: “What makes a winner?” I’m talking about Napoleon Hill’s 1937 landmark bestseller, “Think and Grow Rich.” Great personal development reference book overall, however for our intents and purposes, it outlines 12 things that constitute real riches and any one of of them would be ideal for you to focus in on at this time.

An excerpt from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill [1937] –

“Everyone desires to be rich. But not everyone knows what constitutes enduring riches, and most people believe riches to consist only in material things that money can buy.

Now, here is a list of the 12 things which constitute real riches:

1. A Positive Mental Attitude [observe that it heads the list!]
2. Sound Physical Health
3. Harmony in Human Relations
4. Freedom From Fear
5. The Hope of Future Achievement
6. The Capacity for Applied Faith
7. Willingness to Share One’s Blessings With Others
8. To Be Engaged In a Labour of Love
9. An Open Mind on All Subjects Toward All People
10. Complete Self-Discipline
11. Wisdom With Which to Understand People
12. Financial Security

Observe, if you will, with great benefit, the fact that money comes at the end of the list of the 12 things that make men rich”.

Okay – there’s your list from this remarkable book. Now pick one or two or even three things, depending on what works best for you time-and-energy wise, and light up your lockdown with goals based on those categories. Go!

Further to all of this, because I am passionate about supporting you: Brendon Burchard, the world’s leading high performance coach, a three-time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most-watched, quoted, and followed personal development trainers in history, has come up with a brilliant and inspiring hashtag that I think will help in all of this [post it, or any quotes from this blog post, on your fridge if it gets you going!]:

Locked Down,
But Fired Up to Serve!
#LockedDownFiredUp

I hope that speaks to you!

I have many more references, but I’ll stop with these.

Go ahead now, go light up your life during lockdown and come out stronger, smarter and more successful!

I believe in you!

Feel free to write me at coach@fuelledlife.com with what you’re going to do! And share this post with someone you care about.

As the island and world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, we are doing our best to provide timely and accurate information, and you can find more information on the links below.

• Live: Our continuously updated live blog here
• All: Our coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic here
• Official: The Bermuda Government website here
• World Stats: Live graph of all cases worldwide here
• Bermuda Stats: Chart of the Bermuda stats here
• Timeline: Visual look at the timeline here
• Comprehensive: Our new Covid-19 website here

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