Hi everybody, this is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people just like you. As you can imagine, there are a lot of questions.
So, I just wanted to interrupt our general Mondays with Mike process just to share a little bit of information with you about a couple of questions I’ve gotten so far.
As most of you know we did a webinar on how to stay calm and productive in times of crisis last week. It was well attended and we’ve sent a copy of that webinar to everybody. So if you don’t have a copy of it or if you were unable to register, or be there when we did the webinar, please send an email to info@mikestaver.com. We will make sure you have a copy of the webinar. You can also access the webinar at this link. It’s about an hour long, there are some resources attached to it, and we want to spread the positivity and factual data around what’s happening in the world.
The reality is we are in a crisis. The reality is that the virus is real. The reality is that it’s challenging and it’s going to be probably for the next 6 – 8 weeks. But let me share something with you. We are tracking exactly in alignment with countries who have recovered and are largely back to normal.
So, the question I got this week (which was in alignment with the webinar) was how do I negotiate or navigate these difficult circumstances?
There are several things I want you to do.
First of all, I want you to turn off the news. You can do one daily update if you would like to, I think that’s fine, but I would not continually dine on what’s happening in the news. Because now it’s starting to become a little more contentious in the news, and as people’s nerves increase.
The second thing I want you to do is if you are in any way financially negatively impacted by this, I want to encourage you to examine the financial relief packages that are coming out of Washington. There’s going to be billions and billions of dollars available to those of you who are adversely affected by this. There’s no shame in it. If you are in trouble, I want to encourage you to do that.
So, flatten the curve. What we’re trying to do is flatten the curve. It doesn’t mean we’re trying to reduce the number of cases, it means we’re trying to stretch those cases out so that our medical system doesn’t get overwhelmed so that the challenges that we’re having with taking care of sick folks don’t get bigger than the capacity of our system. Flatten the curve. We do that by what we all know to be true: social distancing, washing our hands, staying away from any human being if you’re sick. Right now (hopefully) most people are remote except for absolutely necessary personnel.
The next thing I want you to think about is how you’re managing YOU. What are you doing to surround yourself with normal, as normal as you possibly can. Because pacing around your house doesn’t help. Find something! You can go outside – this is not an airborne illness, this is a droplet borne illness, which means it has to be transmitted via small microscopic droplets. Which means it isn’t coming out of the rain, and it isn’t coming out of the air. You can get fresh air, you just can’t be within 20, 30, 40 feet of other people. If you have a beautiful backyard, you can sit in your backyard. I live in Scottsdale, I’m near the desert, I could go for a walk in the desert should I choose. Right here in my office I have an Alexa. Play my favourite kind of music. I play every kind of music. I have things around me that I care about and appreciate. So I want you to do that.
The next thing I want you to think about is this. Are you reaching outside of yourself. Are you calling people that you care about? If you are in a sales organization or if you have customers, this is a good time to be calling them and checking in on them. Not to sell to them, but just to call and say “How are you? I’m thinking of you. Is there anything I can do to help?” So that people know we care about each other. Our species survived because we got serious about community. And people say “Oh well we can’t have community because we’re locked in our homes.” That’s not true. There are beautiful things happening online. There was a choir in Chino, California that couldn’t do their concert so they all got on a Zoom call and they did the concert from their isolated locations on Zoom. It was beautiful. You should hear that concert! There are musicians that are getting on their balconies and playing music so their neighbors and people around them can hear. There are all kinds of ways to build community. So, what are you doing to connect with the people around you so the community is still real?
I want to say one last thing which might get me in a little bit of trouble… and that is we as a country are very fortunate. Those of you who are watching me in North America, we are very very fortunate. And our freedom has always been something that many of us have taken for granted. But I want you to know that some of the things that we’re experiencing in terms of isolation and in terms of curfews, in terms of oversight are things that other countries have to deal with all the time. So I’m hoping that as we recover that we’ll be even more appreciative of the connections we have, the relationships we have, and the freedoms that we enjoy.
Finally, know this. It’s temporary. There is not a single country in the world that is ahead of us on the curve that isn’t getting better. Even Italy, with their most difficult circumstances right now, is starting to see a break. And Italy is an anomaly as most of you know. So, it’s temporary, we’re going to get through it, stay connected with people you love and care about, add massive value to the world where you live (what can you do to have an impact on others). I talked to somebody yesterday who called a nursing home and asked what they could send, what they could do for this nursing home so that they didn’t infect anyone but still added value. So they started calling some people in the nursing home, randomly, just to have conversations, to let them know people were thinking about them, and sending them love and light.
So this is Mike Staver, this is an unusual Mondays with Mike. We may or may not get back to regular programming next week, depending on what the world circumstances are, but I want you to know that I do care about you, and bringing you anything that I can bring you in terms of value to make this circumstance more navigable. But in the meantime, let’s be rationally prepared, let’s stay calm, let’s not panic, and let’s keep doing the things we need to do to navigate this together.
Love and light to you. Be healthy, I’ll talk to you soon.
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