How would your year had been if COVID didn't show up?
COVID is definitely going to be blamed for a couple of things in history but did it really affect your life personally?
Only a seer would have known what 2020 had in store for humanity.
We dived into this year with huge expectations. The reason being it is the start of a new decade and for a couple of old folks it might be the realization of various VISION2020s but that’s a subject for another day.
Regardless of how we started the year, this is one year a lot of people will wish to be erased from their age. Lives were put on a hold. Things that brought us joy were canceled and most importantly for the first time in human history, the world was required to stay at home.
A couple of years ago if a man spent one week at home without stepping out, such one could be termed lazy, I recall one of our leaders in Africa calling the youths lazy but well, who is lazy now?
The world as we knew it changed and new systems needed to emerge in order to adjust to the new way of life. One of such was no handshaking or the bear hug that we had freely distributed for centuries. We are now required to mask up to stay alive. All these unfolded before our eyes.
When did it all begin?
Well, the record has it that Wuhan was the first breeding ground. Like other agendas, this situation was politicized and there was back and forth movement of the authenticity for the claim that a new virus has broken out. Some countries didn’t wait before they locked their territorial bounders to avoid the infestation of the virus. While some remained in oblivion.
It was rumored that China aimed to keep the virus a secret just as the US remained adamant that actions be taken to curtail the virus. That clamor was seen as a trade war bant and such was silenced in most parts of the world. But that didn’t stop the virus from spreading.
It’s okay to assume the above are mere speculations or fragments of my creative imagination.
On 11th March 2020, WHO declared COVID a global pandemic, and as of the time of this post, the total number of confirmed cases in the world is pegged at a 27million. That’s huge if you ask me. So far we have lost 881K globally even though 18million people have recovered from the virus.
Enough with the stats, the focus of this article isn’t to remind you about COVID but to draw your attention to your life. The question I asked earlier, how would your year had turned out if COVID didn’t interrupt it?
I’m aware that businesses were put on a halt; even heard of people who became unemployed as a result of the virus. In the midst of all these, I’m also aware that some businesses thrived and didn’t even feel the impact of the COVID.
What could be responsible for that?
A lot of businesses and individuals don’t plan for adversaries and that explains why the nations were thrown off balance when the “stay at home” order was issued. It revealed to a lot of businesses that they haven’t put in place measures that would ensure they don’t have to be in the office for work to be done. They were still stuck in the analogy age even though technology has made it possible to work remotely.
Our places of worship weren’t left out of the mix. A lot of churches and mosques didn’t see the need to be online, in fact, they saw it as the devil’s tool for corrupting the minds of its members and they had violently rebutted it in the past. Today the story is different. We had to create ways to keep doing what we wanted, even if it meant taking church online.
COVID no doubt has affected our goals for the year. But take a minute and ask yourself, did you really have plans for the year and how did COVID affect it? Most people readily blamed COVID for the way 2020 turned out but if we are honest, the year probably would have been like other years for us. Little or no difference.
That is because very few people have clearly defined goals for the year. Don’t get me wrong, you are not clueless about what you want to do with your life. The problem most time is with documentation and taking the right action towards it.
Refrain from joining the bandwagon who will use COVID as a reason why their year didn’t turn out fine. Yes, it wasn’t a year we envisaged but it didn’t happen to tear us down. It happened so that some of us, if not all of us will wake up to the true reality of our lives.
For one, nations of the world had to understand the poor state of their health sector. Organizations had to understand that they needed systems that would get the job done without having to meet in person. Some others recognize the need to have proper savings and investments in place.
Some of these lessons won’t have been learned if a pandemic like these hadn’t happened. What lessons have this year taught you or will you put it in history as the reason you failed?
Of course, you shouldn’t do the latter but rather learn from this year and put in the work to make 2021 better.
You do that by starting now.
We still have three months to make this year the best year yet. Yes, you have lost some months to COVID, what you do now is crucial. Starting this minute, review your goals for 2020.
What can you still achieve? Get to work at it.
What can you start working towards now? Get to work.
If you are looking for excuses, you will have a truckload of it. What you want to focus on is the lessons you learned and the actions you should start taking now.
We will finish this year stronger than we started.
I am rooting for you always.
Best regards
#irorospeaks