Joseph Legaspi's Blog - Posts Tagged "enduraance"
Surviving the Uncertain Road of COVID-19
WHEN? That’s been the predominant question for the longest time. When will the pandemic end? When can I get the vaccine? When will life return to normal?
We are so close with the vaccines, yet still so far with the slow roll out. The persistent questions, confusions, and doubts can lead to an enormous emotional and mental strain. Why? The virus has taken away our sense of control, subjugating us to feel, think, and act with heightened vulnerability. It forces us into a reactive state, where we can find ourselves weak and helpless in pervasive fear of so much unknown.
At the same time, the virus reminds us that life has always been full of deadly risks. We live on a tiny, blue speck speeding incredibly fast, out of our control, in the utter darkness of space. Our defenseless planet also constantly faces asteroids, comets and all sorts of unknown interstellar objects that can end all life on Earth in the blink of an eye. There has been, is, and always will be another virus, plague or calamity that threatens our existence.
Please understand. This isn’t intended to fuel more anxiety, but to explore a fundamental truth: If you search for guaranteed safety in your life, you will never find it.
A more productive search lies in strengthening a clear-minded, healthy approach to get through this uncertain reality.
I say “strengthen” because, underneath all the weariness, you already possess and use a practical approach to meet uncertainty. Think back when you were a child. Did you know for certain what lay in your future? What you did was envision your life ahead and take steps to reach it. Your vision was a stable career to support you in all areas of your well-being. You researched, planned, studied and found teachers, role models or mentors. You armed yourself with confidence, courage, determination, and discipline. You did everything in your power to get to your vision.
Today, we share the same vision of survival. Our steps include quarantining, masking and distancing. I get it. It isn’t easy. In addtion, at times we appear to take one step forward and two steps back. Just when we hear about antibodies giving immunity, we hear about reinfections. Each time we hear something new about this virus, it often isn’t reassuring. This just adds more stress to our growing fatigue and impatience from taking so many daily preventative measures. Nevertheless, these measures have kept us safe so far. The power of patience is invaluable in warlike times. Remember, wars are won with two intangible but vital resoures: Time and Endurance.
Take the prime example of Admiral James Stockdale, a POW for seven brutal years. When finally released from his captivity, he made the paradoxical comment that he had always known certain optimistic comrades would never make it out alive. I had to think about that for a while... Did he say OPTIMISTS? Yes, he did. The optimists would set a goal of Christmas that they’d be freed. When they were still imprisoned by then, they reset their goal to Easter and targeted other dates. But when no release came by Easter or those other dates, they ran out of hope and literally died. The optimists refused to accept the horrifying uncertainty of their situation. He and others, instead, accepted the harsh truth that they didn't know when they'd be freed. Yet, they did everything in their limited power to keep themselves alive, believing one day they would make it out.
The consequences are the same for failing to recognize COVID’s grim realities and the need to maintain our daily preventive measures. It isn't pleasant, but keeping one eye on the crisis maintains our state in problem-solving mode. Though we may be groping in the dark, it keeps us digging down for the will to go on and sustains our focus on the ultimate goal — even when target dates pass and nothing seems to get better. This approach keeps us tapped into a wealth of inner resources, the kind Admiral Stockdale found, which have also sustained humanity’s survival through the ages. We exist today because nature has pre-programmed us to adapt to such moments of desperation.
We don’t know when exactly this pandemic will end. But we know what is needed to survive, and we need to keep doing them, until that one day when we all finally make it out together.
We are so close with the vaccines, yet still so far with the slow roll out. The persistent questions, confusions, and doubts can lead to an enormous emotional and mental strain. Why? The virus has taken away our sense of control, subjugating us to feel, think, and act with heightened vulnerability. It forces us into a reactive state, where we can find ourselves weak and helpless in pervasive fear of so much unknown.
At the same time, the virus reminds us that life has always been full of deadly risks. We live on a tiny, blue speck speeding incredibly fast, out of our control, in the utter darkness of space. Our defenseless planet also constantly faces asteroids, comets and all sorts of unknown interstellar objects that can end all life on Earth in the blink of an eye. There has been, is, and always will be another virus, plague or calamity that threatens our existence.
Please understand. This isn’t intended to fuel more anxiety, but to explore a fundamental truth: If you search for guaranteed safety in your life, you will never find it.
A more productive search lies in strengthening a clear-minded, healthy approach to get through this uncertain reality.
I say “strengthen” because, underneath all the weariness, you already possess and use a practical approach to meet uncertainty. Think back when you were a child. Did you know for certain what lay in your future? What you did was envision your life ahead and take steps to reach it. Your vision was a stable career to support you in all areas of your well-being. You researched, planned, studied and found teachers, role models or mentors. You armed yourself with confidence, courage, determination, and discipline. You did everything in your power to get to your vision.
Today, we share the same vision of survival. Our steps include quarantining, masking and distancing. I get it. It isn’t easy. In addtion, at times we appear to take one step forward and two steps back. Just when we hear about antibodies giving immunity, we hear about reinfections. Each time we hear something new about this virus, it often isn’t reassuring. This just adds more stress to our growing fatigue and impatience from taking so many daily preventative measures. Nevertheless, these measures have kept us safe so far. The power of patience is invaluable in warlike times. Remember, wars are won with two intangible but vital resoures: Time and Endurance.
Take the prime example of Admiral James Stockdale, a POW for seven brutal years. When finally released from his captivity, he made the paradoxical comment that he had always known certain optimistic comrades would never make it out alive. I had to think about that for a while... Did he say OPTIMISTS? Yes, he did. The optimists would set a goal of Christmas that they’d be freed. When they were still imprisoned by then, they reset their goal to Easter and targeted other dates. But when no release came by Easter or those other dates, they ran out of hope and literally died. The optimists refused to accept the horrifying uncertainty of their situation. He and others, instead, accepted the harsh truth that they didn't know when they'd be freed. Yet, they did everything in their limited power to keep themselves alive, believing one day they would make it out.
The consequences are the same for failing to recognize COVID’s grim realities and the need to maintain our daily preventive measures. It isn't pleasant, but keeping one eye on the crisis maintains our state in problem-solving mode. Though we may be groping in the dark, it keeps us digging down for the will to go on and sustains our focus on the ultimate goal — even when target dates pass and nothing seems to get better. This approach keeps us tapped into a wealth of inner resources, the kind Admiral Stockdale found, which have also sustained humanity’s survival through the ages. We exist today because nature has pre-programmed us to adapt to such moments of desperation.
We don’t know when exactly this pandemic will end. But we know what is needed to survive, and we need to keep doing them, until that one day when we all finally make it out together.
