COVID-19: Is purpose calling me?
10 things to do this period
Hello people, Watagwan?? How’re you holding up with the quarantine? Guess you’ve attended more online parties (and meetings) in two weeks than you’ve done in a year.
In recent times, a lot has been happening all across the world: the novel coronavirus, conspiracy theories, 5G and, most importantly, the rebirthing.
I won’t directly address the first three as those are distractions from the real happenings. I call them distractions because they’ve birthed fear, panic and insecurities in the heart of men. We need to deliberately focus our minds on building a positive mindset and attitude, so we make the best use of this season.
The most important thing right now is the rebirthing process. This season would yield two sets of people: the reactive and the proactive.
In the Bible, after the death of Saul, David was about to be crowned the King of Israel. The Benjamites, a tribe in Israel had a different successor in mind but other tribes supported David. This was an intense time in Israel, but the Bible records that there was a certain group of people (the children of Issachar) who understood the times and knew exactly what to do.
Those were the proactive ones, as they had knowledge and understanding of how to position themselves for opportunities that made them relevant. It gave them an advantage over their brethren.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being reactive, but then to what avail?, This would certainly pass, but what’ll happen after then?
This is a season in which we need to be very deliberate and reflective of the actions and decisions we make. We need to get aligned and attuned with what it is God is doing.
Here are 10 things that would prepare us for the aftermath of this season:
1. Rest and meditate: This cannot be overemphasized. The number of hours you spend on the road or at work can be put to use here. Meditate as often as you can, have a pen and paper while doing this because ideas are going to pop up. Do things that can fuel your creativity while you’re indoors. Take a break from the internet as well, the constant stream of bad news can be quite distracting.
2. Pray and Spend time with God: This is the most important point. God is always saying something. We need to get close and listen to Him to find out what He’s saying. The Bible says that it is the glory of God to hide a thing and the honor of kings to search it out.
People often ask, “how do I know God’s voice?” Well, you cannot know or be familiar with my voice unless you know me personally. That’s the same with God, you cannot know God’s voice unless you know Him (and you can know Him by His Word). This is a period where we spend time with Him and let Him speak to us, a season where we fellowship with Him and build intimacy.
The truth is, for us to be useful and actively involved in what He’s doing, we have to be close to Him to get the revelation. Just as the best person to reveal all the features of a new Google Pixel phone is Google (its maker), the best person to reveal our purpose as individuals is God (our creator). Let’s get aligned.
3. Exercise: According to Havard health school, habitual inactivity raises risks of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc. To avoid this, you can follow indoor exercise tutorials on Youtube and start practicing in your room or you can take walks within your house every day.
There’s a 30-day challenge organized by Holly Dolke. Join here.
4. Try out something new: There’re things you’ve been passionate about, but never had the time. The time has now been made available, don’t waste it on being afraid or listening to various conspiracy theorists that’d only fuel the wrong things. Fuel your passion instead, some of you have inborn comedy skills or photography skills, take a course to shape that passion. If you can start a podcast, blog, website, etc, do that.
You can also take online courses to advance your current skillset, there’re a couple of free courses out there, I’ll list some of them here:
-Machine Learning and Data Science free online courses
-Enhance your skills with google
-Havard business school online
Find more courses here
Be careful not to overwhelm yourself with the courses, make a list of what you want to learn in their order of priority, then go ahead to scout for free courses on them and start. Starting is the easiest part, ensure you push yourself to finish.
5. Build your online presence: Let’s do a little exercise here,
Search for your name on google, is there any tiniest reflection of who you are and what you do?
If you can see your name all over, then you’re doing well, but if you don’t, this is your chance.
Draw a list of all the things you can teach someone(remember those things you help your friends do for free? that’s part of it),
Next, select one or two skills that you’re more comfortable with
And lastly, start sharing your knowledge. You don’t need to be a professional to do this, start as little as possible, it could be through online blogs like medium or social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, or any channel at all.
For eg, you can start training kids remotely or even create a course for parents on how to train their kids from home.
My point is, no skill you have is too basic, someone out there needs it, so share it. The time is short, would you want to return to the master with the skills that He gave you? I doubt, so teach it.
6. Spend time with family and reach out to your friends: This mandatory lockdown offers us the opportunity to stay at home with family. Play, cook, eat, have fun and share experiences together.
Call your friends, especially those who stay alone or have no family to be with at this time, show them love and share your faith with them.
7. Read books and watch movies: You have a list of books that you planned to read at the beginning of the year, but the activities of life swooped in and made it impossible for you to start reading them. Now is your time, so what’re you waiting for?
Even the movies that enhance your personal development, watch them now. Spend time developing your self this season.
8. Observe and practice safety measures: I know it’s God that keeps us safe but still stay at home, wash your hands, practice social distancing when you step out. We need each other this season and beyond.
(P.S let us remind our Nigerian mothers too).
9. Stock your house with food and essential supplies: Don’t let your house be empty, buy the things you need not want. Also, lookout for ways to help the people close to you who have no means of fending for themselves this period.
10. Reassess and build a better financial plan: As I mentioned earlier, this is a season to plan and strategize, analyze your current financial plan, how sustainable is it? what things can be put in place to help you achieve the life of your dreams?.
Read books on this, listen to podcasts, read articles, follow people who’re versed in this area to help you improve your knowledge and build the right strategies.
Bonus point, Move with love and faith: A lot of people are mentally stressed and depressed, which might reflect in their attitude towards us, pray for them, don’t hold it against them.
Pray also for the nations of the world, the rulers and the people.
We’ll get to the other side soon, let’s get there not barely surviving, let’s get there better and ready.
Thank you so much for reading this
