How to be a light in the storm
‘Be not afraid’, the voice of the Master calls to me
Calming the wind, bringing an end to the Storm
‘Help me to battle on, help me to stay strong.’
If you have felt fear, anxiety, or depression over the past few months, this article is for you.
On March 3rd, we were told that we would be working from home for the foreseeable future because of the recent surge of Coronavirus cases across the US. I remember feeling excited and hopeful that this would soon blow over and that we would all be back in the office in a month or two. I cleaned off my desk, grabbed my monitor, and drove home.
I did not take it seriously.
About a month in, I started to realize the severity of the situation and I decided to go back to the east coast and quarantine myself near my family. I only get to see my parents twice a year so I felt like this would be a great opportunity to spend quality, social-distanced time around them and reconnect to my roots.
When I arrived in South Carolina, I allowed myself to be consumed with the fearful messages from the media. I looked around and saw that everyone was afraid and the news headlines were getting worse by the day. I started to feel a tremendous amount of anxiety, fear, and worry arise in my body. When this happens, I usually sit (meditate) for at least 30 minutes so that my body calms down and I am able to recalibrate my nervous system. After my meditation, I decided to research a few of my favorite leaders in the spiritual genre and hear their advice.
From these three different spiritual leaders, I heard the same message, “Take this time to go inward and to improve your life by 10%.” Their message hit me to the core and I decided to make a vow to myself that no matter what happened, I would emerge from this as a better person. I had such a strong feeling that I wrote down in my journal the exact steps that I wanted to take to improve my life. The areas in which I wanted to improve were: Financial, Career, Relational, and Spiritual.
I hired a Financial Coach. A few days after my commitment, a close friend reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to hire a phenomenal financial coach that could help improve my mindset on wealth and abundance. I remember briefly mentioning to this friend a year ago that I was interested in getting some help on the subject. It was a moment of synchronicity and of the world giving me an opportunity to truly follow through on my commitment. I remember telling the financial coach yes and then immediately feeling a pit in my stomach that I would have to give up a decent amount of money. A part of me wanted to pull out and say, “You know what… this really isn’t the right time to pay for something like this.” or “Yeah, I know that I said I wanted to hire someone who would help me with my mindset (most important thing) but I just don’t think I can swing it.” The decision that I made to hold firm to my commitment even when I was scared has paid back dividends. The most important thing is that I showed myself that I was serious about my vows to become better. Now, anytime that I feel scared or small I realize how abundant the world is and I text Dave Lowell (spoiler) and let him know my thoughts. He listens, asks clarifying questions, and then allows me to construct an intelligent answer.
I invested in Brad Lea’s sales training
I didn’t even know who Brad Lea was before this Coronavirus situation, but because of my recent addiction to social media I was drawn to his content. I enjoyed listening to his message and it seemed that he had credibility in the sales world. I listened to his pitch and asked my VP if he wanted to do it with me. Joe said yes so I felt invested to follow through. This investment wasn’t quite as heavy, but I knew that I was going to take this training very seriously and invest my full time and attention into it. A lot of the content is about getting back to the fundamentals of sales but what really stuck out to me was his teaching on how easy it is to connect with others and to just be yourself. It takes practice if you are not used to it, but once you understand how it feels to be comfortable around other people, you are well on your way. The first step to being comfortable being yourself around others is to love yourself and forgive yourself for not always following through on your word. You have to look yourself in the mirror and say sorry - seriously, do it. Sometime today or tonight, look yourself in the mirror and say, “I’m sorry for not being honest with you. I’m sorry for not always following through on my word. I promise that I will do better and do what I say I’m going to do. You are truly great.” And smile. The booklist in this sales training was also a goldmine. He had us read some of the classics that I’ve already read a few times: How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Law of Success, 48 Laws of Power, Mastery, etc. I was also guided from another source to pick up The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles and was blown away by its relevance to today’s issues. The book was published in 1910.
I audited every minute of the day
I took inventory over the past few weeks of every activity and wrote down exactly how I spent my time. I included every activity and every “non-activity” that I didn’t consider time wasters. Non-activities included ruminating over past successes or failures, procrastination, gawking over my successful friends’s websites and social media posts, and generally feeling bad about myself for not being further along in my life. Really productive, right? It wasn’t until I sat down and wrote all of this out that I realized how insidious it would be to my future growth. When I came to that realization, I also wrote down how my life would turn out if I paid more attention to the negative things that I could not control. I felt into that small, future self and knew that there was something bigger for me to be. I then wrote out who I wanted my future self to be and I started to get really excited. Words, pictures, images, started flowing to me effortlessly and I could not put my pen down. It was as if something else was guiding my hand and taking over my thought process for the span of about 30 minutes. Once I relaxed and felt like I had written everything I needed to write, I put a plan in place to implement everything that I had dreamed of. This implementation would be different - I would set small, daily goals and be patient with the long-term dream becoming a reality. In many ways, I am already that person that I dreamed of a few months ago. It’s amazing the immediate shifts that happen when you have a definite chief aim of who you want to be and you feel great about who you are becoming.
Conclusion
To be honest, I have struggled at times during this Coronavirus pandemic. Especially in the beginning, I was overwhelmed with anxiety and fear for the future. It wasn’t until I cut out all media, social media, and toxic people from my life that I started to realize where these fearful messages were coming from. I have slowly added certain news outlets and social media back into my life, but with more caution and less frequency. I have replaced the negative messages with exciting, hopeful, and fulfilling friends and content. I find myself listening to the old books that inspired me to change and become a better person.
It’s important to realize that we are in a storm. It’s important to realize that people need help. What’s more important is to know that in order to help anyone else, we need to first help ourselves and make sure that we are doing everything we can to cultivate joy, love, and happiness within. We cannot attack the problems of the world with anger and bitterness - that will only bring more of what we do not want. Instead, we can try to imagine what our most beautiful life would look and feel like, and with this spirit, we make Change.
With love,
Zach Baughan