Never before have we as a race faced something of this nature, at this scale, globally, it seems straight out of one of those Roland Emmerich/ Jerry Bruckheimer Disaster or Superhero movies where some aliens come and attack mankind. And then a mix of heroes – ordinary and extraordinary rise to the occasion and save their loved ones, themselves and the world. The stakes are always personal in such films – be it a child, a partner, or past that has to saved, salvaged. Which is what makes it relatable, compelling and fun.
Clearly, this is one such situation. The world is in danger. It’s real. And it’s here. It’s not a distant, decades away scenario. The impact is visible for all – so while your maid may not know about Greta Thunberg and your driver may not care about melting polar ice caps, he sure as hell can see this affecting him right now. The stakes are very personal for all of us. There are some extraordinary heroes, our medical teams, the frontline soldiers who are out there battling this. And some ‘regular’ folks who are also rising to the occasion – be it making chai and providing all the liftmen/ guards, or donating free meals for daily wage laborers.
It’s been an incredible reminder to all of us to focus on the essentials…
· Spend time with the people essential in your life
· Spend money on the basic essentials [stocking up on food, medication Vs. on general extravagance]
· Spend effort on the essential things [taking care of yourself, your loved ones, cooking, cleaning yourself in the absence of staff, learning/ teaching new things given there’s mandatory home school for our kids and WFH for us]
There’s a theory that it takes 21 days to form/ make/ break a habit. While this may or may not be true, but doing/ stopping something consistently for 21 days straight will certainly put you on that path. So, this 21-day lockdown has certainly given us all a never-before opportunity to do/ try a few things we may have only hoped to do but never attempted. Now, we may all have multiple excuses, erm, reasons including the 5 Cs to not be able to do this including…
· Cooking [no staff]
· Cleaning [my OCD]
· Classes Online [no school for my son]
· Conference Calls, Zoom & otherwise [God bless these clients!]
· Corona se bachna [essentially rubbish WhatsApp forwards]
But really if we have the bandwidth to take part in some of those inane social media challenges including Kiki, Kookoo, Sarees, Books and whatnot, yaar, yeh 21-day challenge toh banta hai. The difference being you challenge yourself. It could be anything among the essentials that matter…
· Self-improvement [Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Professional, Personal]
· Relationship [Family, Friends – Especially important in these times of Social Distancing]
So, pin down your own 21-day. There are so many tools, online courses, tutorials, ideas online. Carve out an hour in a day, e.g.
· 10-20-30 mins. [10 mins gratitude & journaling, 20 mins meditation, 30 mins exercise] or
· 30-30 [30 mins reading, 30 mins online course] or
· 60 [straight up dedicated 1 hour to 1 thing, painting, writing, dancing, chatting with your wife, whatever]
It takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in a field but only 20 hours to get good at something. Check out this TedTALK by Josh Kaufmann [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY], it’s based on his bestseller book on Fast Learning where he field-tests, hacks and cracks some really diverse skills [programming a web application, windsurfing, the world’s oldest and most complex board game and playing the ukulele!] See his talk, it’s quite fun, he plays 100 pop songs by learning 4 simple chords on the Uke [from My Heart Will Go On to Gangnam Style!]
He talks about 20 hours. You’ve got 21.
Been wanting to learn an instrument? Take an online course on screenwriting? A digital marketing refresher? Carrom with dad? Sketching with son? Poetry by yourself? Cooking for the Mrs.? Calling up that old college bud? Reading the book you bought and that’s been lying on your bedside table for 21 months? Losing that belly? Quit smoking? Reduce screen time? Write a blog?
What are you waiting for? Save yourself, save the world, let's win this war. Drop a comment on what you’re planning. Have fun. And let’s do this. As the Avengers put it, “Whatever it takes!”
