How to Challenge Yourself Wisely During a Pandemic
Your new commitments shouldn’t stress you out.
In this new reality, I see people around me taking on challenges. They want to tame their minds and come out stronger on the other side.
Matt Sandrini wrote about his 1,000-push-ups-a-day challenge. Self-help content worldwide is zeroing in on all the new skills you can learn in quarantine. I also committed to writing on Medium daily, since I now have extra time to do it.
A personal challenge may be a great way to deal with uncertainty. By committing to something, you take charge of the things you can control. That’s one of the pearls of wisdom that Stoics have been advocating for millennia.
But if you decide to take on a challenge, it’s essential to do it wisely. It’s not smart to exhaust yourself right now. More than ever, you need to be as mentally and physically healthy as possible.
Your challenge shouldn’t add stress to your life. Especially not right now. That being said, here are a few things to keep in mind when seeking to challenge yourself during this time.
“Now Is Not The Time To Obsess About Productivity”
The above sentence is the title of Rainesford Stauffer’s recent article in Forge. For those of us who stay at home with more time than we know what to do with, this is basic.
In her piece, Rainesford shares how “even taking a moment to bake a batch of cookies a few days ago made me feel guilty, like I was stealing time away for a small, frivolous luxury.”
This is the sign of our times. Many people have come to believe that it’s only worth pursuing activities that move them closer to their goals
Our common issue is that we think that everything we do should make us better in some way.
The coronavirus outbreak is a reminder for us to reconsider that notion. It’s a time when you can pause, maybe for the first time in months or even years. If you can afford to do nothing — even just for thirty minutes a day — embrace that chance.
Now is not the time to obsess about productivity. It’s the time to check in with ourselves and see how we feel when…
