PHOTO BY Deborah Cortelazzi
Since my last article posted here, a lot has changed. I will try to take it slow here and analyze what actually happened with my readers. I'm not saying that everything is worse or better; it is just a change. Human behavior and experience attach "bad" or "good" labels to changes.
After settling down, everything was good. I always had a lot of energy, filled with motivation. I was happy to go to work, learn new things and experiences, and travel. It was hard at the start because there were many things I could not understand. A simple example. There are 2 gas stations on different sides of the same road, one sells the gas for $5 per gallon, and the other sells it for $5.5. As a human with common sense, I could not understand how people still go to the expensive gas station. And not just 1 or 2 cars were pulling up; no, there were many. I asked many people this question: Why do people go to the expensive gas station if the same gas is cheaper? None of them could give me an answer that would satisfy my common sense :) If you ask this question now, I will answer the following. People are getting used to things, and they don't want to change them. For many, it is not just the gas filling anymore; it is much more; it is a type of their habits and commute. They need to go in and say to the worker inside - "Hey John, how you doing" and have their small talk and feel satisfied. They don't care about those $0.5 per gallon anymore. They don't even notice the difference.
This is just one example out of many that was hard for me to accept into my common sense. This is what I call the transformation, adaptation and conversion period. A change in mindset. That is very important.
If you want to be part of society, you need to understand it. You need to understand the new rules; you need to understand the new habits. You can still be the same person, but you are being changed unconsciously. Agree or not, it is happening. For many, this might not be news. For me, it was, and it still is.
Covid-19 started in December 2019, and the US started the shutdown in March 2020, quarantine, isolation, and regulations. Big changes were about to hit the ways we were used to living. I started to work from home. It was hard to adapt since there were a lot of distractions, kids, noise, and access to the refrigerator :) I felt a decrease in my productivity and performance at the start, but when I started to get used to this new way, my productivity doubled. I started to feel that at work there were ALOT more distractions. I was able to do more during the day, more meetings, and more coding. The quality of my work also got a raise. Like many, I realized that this is going to be the future, it is totally possible.
With Covid though, there was a lockdown, you were not allowed to travel and meet people. The physical social life died. For many, it was a huge depression, but for me, I consider myself an introvert, and it was not too bad. I was able to socialize while playing my online games, it was a fun time. Since our office was not a public place, and there were just a few employees, we were able to open up early, and everything was back to normal. There was a big difference now. You can work remotely and still be successful in what you are doing. Of course, this won't work for many businesses, but it will for many others. Big companies now want their employees back in offices, but there is a big resistance. People don't work to go back to the office or worse, they don't want to work at all. I think the last part is stupid, it is a degradation. You need to do some kind of work, for others or for yourself, but you need to be in the loop.
The Loop - the dangerous loop many of us live in. There are many types of loops. Wake up -> Work -> Gym -> Sleep loop is a popular one these days. There are many others. Wake up -> Gym -> Sleep -> Party -> Sleep. It does not matter what your loop is, but if you can sense it, you need to do something about it. Again, loops are in our nature. It is about if you can sense them or not.
You can break your loop and start a new one. It requires a significant change in your life. You can move to another country, you can get married, you can have children, all these are things that break previous loops and start new loops.
But there are also ways to refresh/reset current loops. They require more other changes, like moving to a new apartment or changing your job.
The important thing here is the CHANGE; you must realize that only change can save you. A significant change, small change, or what particular change is needed, differs from person to person; you need to dig into yourself and find out.
Sensing the loop and realizing that you need the change is not enough. The hardest part is, having the guts for it.
This article feels "darker" to me compared to my older articles; it has this dark energy inside, and I can feel it too after I read it. But it concludes what was these 4 years like. Realizing, adapting, and constantly changing in a pandemic requires a lot of energy. I gave this energy; now I need to find some energy source, some new change.
I hope I will be able to dedicate more time to my blog since it is a great help to me. It is like thinking aloud, and it helps to analyze everything.