A lot of people are going mental, well not mental but hysterical about the whole Coronavirus situation. Obviously, we are living in a very hard time right now and we have to be careful. I don’t usually speak about politics or current events, but this is different. I want to share ten ideas with you that we can do during the crisis. It’s obvious to me that I can’t solve this problem. I’m no expert on the subject matter and quite frankly I wasted a lot of time reading my tweeter feed, I decided to stop and do something productive (one of the things is write this article).

We can’t deny that this crisis is affecting everybody, it’s not only the hospitality industry, or the travel industry but everybody, it’s a chain. Obviously, the hospitality, travel and event businesses are affected right now the most. Some people are worried about their finances, some people are worried for their health, and there is a negative energy going around.

I think more people are feeding fear into this. We should not start saying that this is affecting some industries and people more than others – it’s everybody. From a personal point of view, yes, the older people and people with diseases are in more danger.

From a business perspective, everybody is affected. I lost a client recently, two deals that I had pending now paused, a client is struggling financially and obviously it impacts me and others around me.

I know one thing – we can control what we do, we can control how we react, we can control what we do at home, today. We can either watch Netflix or we can sit down and innovate, reinvent, think of ideas. We can spend more time with our family and our loved ones, we can have online conversations with business partners, we can brainstorm and think of what we can do today.

I will assume that you have self-isolated and are staying at home, so know you have more time as you are not travelling to work and you are not going out.

  1. Read Books

You can start reading books, books on topics that matter to you, books that will help you improve your skills, books that will help you with being more mindful, books that will help you communicate better, books that will help your relationship. You choose, sit down and decide what you want to improve and read more books. Ohh, you can’t go to Waterstones to buy one? Well you can order it on Amazon, if you can’t order it on Amazon, you can read it on Kindle.

P.S Great book I’m reading now is Deep Work; Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World by Cal Newport.

  • Write A Book

 A lot of people hope to write a book about a topic they care a lot for and want to share their message with the world, so why not do it now. Now is the best time to do it. You will have to delete your social media and really focus on just writing. Self-publishing has never been easier so why not? By the time this thing is over you could have finished writing and editing your own book and maybe, just maybe publish a book. When you go back to work while others would be talking about all the movies they watched and media they consumed, you can proudly say that they can buy your new book on Amazon.

  • Start A Podcast

There are so many articles and data that proves there is a huge opportunity in podcasting. But don’t get it twisted, you will not publish your podcast today, and in a month you will not have millions of people listening, it will take time to build an audience. You can start doing your own research on what equipment you might need to do a podcast and how to start it and launch it. Maybe now is the time to start speaking about the topic you really care about. This can actually be beneficial to build your personal brand or your business. 

  • Start A Side Hustle

In times of uncertainty finances are one of the things that we all worry about. Why not think about how you can start a side hustle. Maybe you create a new product, maybe you create a new service, maybe you want to start blogging, maybe you noticed a huge gap in the market and want to cover it. Maybe you start creating unique t-shirts and selling online. It’s never been easier to start a small side hustle, with the likes of Shopify or WordPress it’s easier now and it’s a great opportunity. If you need help with this one, send me an email and I might be able to help you.

  • Start YouTube/Facebook Live/Instagram Live/TikTok

We always say that we need to start doing something but never have time. Well now you can start a YouTube channel, start doing Facebook Live or Instagram Live on a weekly basis and engage with your audience (or build an audience). Now is the time to learn how you can do all those lives. Think of how you can add value to people on social channels and start doing it on a weekly basis. Learn TikTok, it’s a new platform that is competing with Instagram and is currently growing rapidly. There is a lot of organic reach now, it’s like Facebook 2010. Can you imagine if you would have jumped on YouTube when it started? Well now it’s an opportunity to start TikTok.

  • Learn A New Skill

This brings me to my next point, learning a new skill. Maybe you want to improve your photography skills, maybe you want to improve your writing skills, maybe you want to improve your coffee skills. I don’t know, whatever you want to improve now is the time. We live in a world where information is not a problem, you can find articles, books, videos and eBooks. I personally prefer learning from Skillshare.com as they have lessons in structure. You can create a free account for 60 days and then cancel it. Just add a reminder on your calendar to cancel it a couple of days before the free trial runs out. Otherwise it’s around £10 per month. Do you know how much more value you will add to yourself and your company by learning a new skill, or just becoming better at what you do? A lot. A great book about becoming the best I highly recommend you read is Mastery by Robert Green. 

  • Start A New Habit

Now is a great time to ditch an old habit and start a new habit. Maybe not the gym, (I still do go to my gym), you might want to start running, so why not start running every day? Maybe you want to start meditating? Why not practice meditation every day for the next 30 days? If you want a free trial to Calm (a meditation application) I use I can send it to you for 30 days – just send me an email on [email protected] and I will send you the invitation. Maybe you want to start writing every day for 30 minutes? You can start practicing doing it every day. Don’t worry about the time, because you might think when you start going back to work you will not have time – well you will find the time if you stick to it and if it’s important to you.

  • Break Up

 This one is a bit weird but I think it’s a good one. If you are in a relationship or marriage that is going nowhere and you’ve been thinking of breaking up for the past days, weeks, months, year, years, decades, well now is the time to sit down and have a conversation with your partner about breaking up. Now is not a good time Alex as I’m already stressed out with this virus! That’s the point you are already stressed out, stress a bit more and solve another issue you have. Use this opportunity to speak and do changes. Start looking for apartments and planning to move out if you live with your partner.

  • Find Your Purpose

Right after breaking up, finding your purpose might not be a good strategy but who knows maybe it might. Maybe it’s time to get your shit together! A lot of times we are busy running around going to work, coming home, meeting friends and doing our rituals that we forget that we live on autopilot. As you might know, when we repeat a task multiple times our brain ‘saves’ the activity for the next time so we don’t think about it. Otherwise we would burn out if we had to remember everything. That’s why we don’t live in the present moment. We might be eating but our thoughts are about what we have to do tomorrow, we might be worried about yesterday, we might be thinking about what we are going to cook tomorrow, we don’t enjoy the present moment – the food in front of us. That’s one of the main reasons why people love to travel – because when we visit a new city, our brain is conscious and aware of every moment, ohh, look at that tree, oh look at that car – we are present because it’s the first time that we experience that city. So that’s why maybe now it’s time to sit down and analyse your life purpose. How do you do that? Well I can write a whole book about how to find your purpose but here is the short version; write down 10 causes you care about the most – write down ten problems that you see in this world. Pick one and start solving it. While solving it figure out a business model around it – how will people pay you real money to get what you are doing/selling. I truly believe when we live on purpose, we are happier, even in adversities. We think of creative solutions, we think of ways on how to overcome our challenges. So, if you hate what you do or you don’t find your work meaningful, please stop and reflect. Think of how you can make this world a better place.

10. Mindset

Last but not least is mindset. Actually, I believe mindset is the most important thing we can have. When we complain, when we are anxious, when we are angry, when we see adversity in front of us it’s a result of our mindset. There are different ways we can change our mindset. I’m a fan of Stoic Philosophy, every morning I read and write in my Stoic journal to remind myself, to teach myself and to work on my mind. People go to the gym to work on their muscles, but what do we do to develop our brains? I have a set or rituals every morning that I do that help me throughout the day and throughout tough times. Cold showers for example, is a new habit I developed last year after attending UPW Event (Tony Robbins Unleash The Power Within), priming is another ritual I started doing after the event and I’ve been doing it for the past year. So, mindset is something that is developed over years. I became a minimalist a couple of years ago – again it’s a mindset for me, I practice it and I live it. I became a vegan a couple of years ago as well – it has to do with the mindset – opening my mind and heart to listen and learn new things. Understanding that we’ve been brainwashed and manipulated by our parents, media, advertising and friends.

The bottom line is working on our mindset, creating a habit of questioning our beliefs, our ways of doing things. The reason why we have mobile phones, airplanes, electricity and other great inventions is because there were people out there that questioned the status quo.That’s how we innovate, that’s how new things, products, ideas are born.

So, there you go, ten things we can do during these challenging times. The key is switch off the media, don’t consume the news, don’t consume social media and start being productive. Tell your parents, your friends you love them, take care of yourself, take care of others and let’s move on. Everything has a beginning and an end. This will end too. Let’s come back stronger by doing the things above, not just saying it.

By the way, I watched this video yesterday from Peter Sage and I found it valuable. I think you will find it valuable: http://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=158242488584401

Let me know your thoughts below, I would love to hear them.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends as it might help them in this time of period as a lot of people are anxious and stressed.