The COVID-19 epidemic has forced all of us to change our everyday habits to meet the social distancing and other restrictions imposed to control the spread to our fellow Americans. These radical changes to our daily routine can take a toll not only on our livelihoods but also on our mental health. During these difficult times, we should resist blaming politicians in Washington or elsewhere for our problems and remember Theodore Roosevelt’s practical personal improvement advice above. In short, we need to ask ourselves the question posed in the graph below – Who do I choose to be during COVID -19?
This graph shows that this can be a process, much like the stages of grief after a loss, Washington may not be helping much, but hopefully most of us have passed through the fear stage, remembering that the word “fear” is short for “fantasized experiences appearing real”. I and many of you are probably still in the learning stage, where we are finding ways to maximize the use of our time. As TR succinctly put it above and as I mentioned in a previous post, each of us are called to make it to the final growth zone, so we can show how a free people can unite together to defeat the disease. Successfully doing so will improve not only our nation’s future, but our personal futures as well.