I have a picture beside my desk.

We’d just finished riding from Miami to Key West as a reverse start to a very fun bike trip. I tagged along most of the way from Key West to NOLA. Good times with my friend, Petro (love you, bro).

Look closely and what do you see?

I’m at the southern most point of the USA and I’m looking at my phone.

Kinda embarrassing.

I stuck it on my printer to remind me that life happens outside my office.

The pandemic increased my intake of news and social media.

This was not a good thing.

To be sick of sickness is the only cure.

Tao Te Ching

Some of my choices have a negative utility => meaning net-net doing NOTHING is better that doing them.

With this in mind – consider what “not to keep” from the pandemic.

At the end of Summer Break, I dropped Facebook/Instagram.

Over Winter Break, I pulled the plug on Twitter and email.

News => I subscribed to our local paper’s online edition. Published daily, no live updates. One paper a day, no updates until 5am the next day. Being a local paper, something needs to be big to make the online edition.

Across the year, I removed the option to flee into my phone, or the news, or an urgent (but not really urgent) email.

It is not feasible for me to completely drop email from my life, but it is feasible to remove social media & browsers from my phone and limit the time spent staring at a screen (link is my email sig file).

Repeat after me…

Life happens outside my office.

I want my family to remember I made time for them.

The cost of the status quo is hidden.

So… each year, keep what works AND try something new.

PS: eMail initiative & early wake up => 1,250 hours per annum. Small changes have big results when compounded over time. An inconvenient truth => My middle age ends in eight years. Do I want to spend an avoidable 10,000 hours looking at a screen? Own the outcome!

Today marks ten months of pandemic living and I remind myself, everyone wants to be on a winning team.

Yesterday, I shared that it took my kids ~100 days to return to baseline greed, avarice, appetite and longing. 😉

I took this as a good sign. My wife and I had created a normal environment for them.

Frankly, it was disappointing to be unable to repeatedly play the “but there’s a global pandemic going on” card.

However, having spent time with three-year-olds, I was used to a kid-don’t-care attitude. Three-year olds are incredibly useful training for life.

What have you done for me lately?

I went through the pain to get you on autopilot.

Up by 6:30am, read, breakfast, Duolingo, get dressed, brush teeth, walk around the block and login to Online School.

Six months to catch them up to an all-star single mom’s family routine. Our friend (all-star single mom) probably doesn’t feel like an all-star but I’ve been watching her for years. I’d always wondered how she did it.

She did it because she had no alternative.

Here’s another lesson from my COVID-season…

Alcoholism, addiction, pandemics, fitness, weight-loss, anger management, academic performance… wherever we are screwing ourselves up!

Once you’ve gone through the pain to change, hold on to those gains!

Everyone around you wants to be on a winning team.

They are longing to follow the structure, and standard, you set.

Have faith you will rise to the challenge.

…there you are.

2020 was the most time I’ve ever spent with my kids. I watched them closely.

By July, the COVID’s shock had worn off and it dawned on me…

…their appetite, gratitude, happiness, greed, all of it

My kids had returned to baseline ~100 days after the pandemic hit.

Collectively, we tell ourselves that hardships “take” from us. However, my children’s moods, behavior and desires told me they got back to normal, quite quickly.

What’s the lesson?

Don’t spend money, time and emotion making my children’s lives easier.

Like every_essential_truth, once I was able to see this lesson outside myself, it was possible to turn the lesson inwards.

If you are struggling then challenge yourself.

It’s easy for me to blame the constraints of family, COVID, or my life situation for my “problems.”

There is nothing, outside my own attitude, that causes problems in my life.

What To Do?

Back in May, I said “screw it” and reset my alarm to 3:45am.

It’s been there ever since.

I carved out 900 hours a year when my kids are sleeping.

No matter what the day holds, I start with a win.

The habit of action moved me past the illusion that my problems were outside my control.

Don’t train your kids, or yourself, to be a victim of circumstances.

Own the outcome.

PS – if you’re keeping track, then we’re up to 900 annual-hours worth of pandemic lessons, our health and wellness program is done by 8am and we are not training ourselves to be victims of external circumstance.

Consider this a COVID-season review. With a season review, I start by focusing on what worked.

My wife looked at me like I was nuts when I asked her what she’d like to keep from the pandemic… …but then she thought about it

=> up early (6 out of 7 days), home gym and consolidated weekly grocery shop

Sounds small… …but if those changes stick then it’s 500 hours a year for the rest of her life.

And.

Her health and wellness program is done before 8am every single day.

What are you going to keep?