For virtually every person in America and around the world, life has been disrupted in some way by the current COVID-19 pandemic. For some lucky people, the current quarantine measures are mostly a frustrating inconvenience, and their biggest concerns are boredom and running out of snacks. But for most people, we have been shaken by this pandemic and the toll it is having on everything—on health, on families, on livelihoods, on businesses, on cities, and on the economy on a global scale.
Countless people are out of work, many are working from home, and others are still going to work but under new and challenging conditions. Many parents are suddenly juggling virtual education in addition to their own stressful job situations, and both adults and children all over the world have had their normal routines turned upside down.
Those are just a few of the changes and challenges people are dealing with right now—there are not enough words to fully encompass the pain, fear, and grief gripping many families and individuals who are experiencing this illness firsthand, or struggling to feed their children, or scrambling to pay bills, or trying to cope with mental illness, domestic violence, and a thousand other problems made worse by current circumstances.
What can be done? Where do we turn? How do we handle all this? The chaos, stress, and disruption can be overwhelming. The answer: Center your life around what matters most.
- For many people, ‘what matters most’ might be their faith and spirituality, and grounding themselves in that.
- For others, it might be personal wellbeing and taking care of their mental and physical health.
- Many people consider their families to be most important, and choose to invest in their relationships with spouses, children, siblings and parents.
- Others feel a strong conviction that their daily actions and how they handle their jobs is what matters most, and they dedicate their time and energy to serving well.
- Other people have other answers. There is no right or wrong answer.
Only you can thoughtfully and carefully decide what is most important in your life! Center your life around what matters most TO YOU. Prioritize that. Focus on that. Take one step at a time, put one foot in front of the other, and you WILL get through this.
