A very common and completely understandable reaction to all this business is “I just can’t wait for it to be over.
I am just going to sit tight and wait for it all to be over.” And you know, first reaction to that is OK, makes total sense, because what else are you going to do? Of course you can’t force the end of it.
You can’t really do anything that’s going to end the lockdown sooner, so really you just can sit tight and do the best you can to get through this time, and then eventually things will start to open up again.
But what I find when I think this way, any time I just feel like I’m gonna wait for something to change, it really is so boring.
It makes time move slowly.
It makes the day sometimes feel like what’s the point.
It’s very frustrating just waiting for time to pass, and it makes everything just really a chore.
Even if I’m not really doing much, it’s like “Oh, I just got to kill time.” Really not very satisfying but I find that there’s an amazing different way, an amazing change when I look at it a different way.
If I look at the day like I’m just waiting for it to be over, then I have this painful slowness to everything, and it’s just boredom everywhere.
But if instead I say that I want to get something done before the change happens, that I’m setting this time to actually achieve a particular goal, now suddenly I’m not waiting for the time to pass.
I am racing against time, because I want to be able to achieve my goal before the situation changes.
So time is then against me in my mind, because I’m thinking well, you know, time’s passing.
I’d better get this thing done before too much time passes.
So imagine the difference between even you could say on a single day, you can say “Oh, I have nothing to do until this appointment at 8:00 tonight, so I’m just going to pass some time till that happens.” And then the day can be very slow.
But then if I say “I am going to get this particular job done by the end of the day”, suddenly I’m not wishing for time to pass anymore, and maybe that’s what really makes the difference.
If I’m just killing time, I’m wishing that time goes away.
“I just can’t wait for the quarantine to end.
I just wish it’ll all be over.” Just hoping time will pass quickly.
The opposite of that, if I really want to get something done before that, now I don’t want time to pass quickly.
Now I’m no longer in a hurry for the lockdown to end, because I have work to do during this time.
So what I’m imagining now is I want to use this time to put my whole life in order, get everything organized and simplified and so that all the loose ends of my life can be tied up and I can just have a simple, clear picture of where I am, what I need to do, what I want, everything that I have.
So simplify, organize, and get everything very clearly put together.
That’s my ambition for this time.
So I’m imagining this moment when the lockdown’s over, where suddenly I come out of lockdown and now back into life, being able to travel again, being able to do things again, and I’m doing it from this state of being organized and ready.
And that’s a lot of work, to clean up all these loose ends and organize my whole life.
That’s a lot of stuff to do.
So when I’m thinking this way, I don’t really feel so much of a sense like “Oh, I’m so tired of this.
I’m so tired of this lockdown.
I just want to be able to go back to do things.” Because now I’m thinking “I want to be in this strong position when this ends.” So now I feel like I’m not wishing for time to pass.
Even though, maybe really, yeah, I would be happy for this to end anytime.
But by thinking about what I want to get done during this time, it takes away that sort of longing for time to pass, and lets me use this time now the best I can.
#killingtime #lockdowngoals #timepasses