Visionary. Value focused.

New normal – are we fked? – Part 2

Let’s talk about what I see in other people when we are all put into an unexpected situation.

Tl; dr;

Most people I know have negative thoughts about the future. They all have different ways to deal with the pandemic.

• Some withdraw into their self-built containers where they just wait for the storm to pass.
• Others break the rule repetitively to go where they want, do what they want, and justify it as freedom of choice.
• Some others pursue new habits, hobbies.
• Only a tiny portion of people that I know, who can and commit to take advantage of the circumstances.

The hibernators

As the name that I just made up suggested, this type of people will create a safe haven for themselves and stay there until everything is over. And as long as they are comfortable, staying out of troubles and other issues that are happening, it’s all good right?

I am lucky enough to surround myself with friends who have stable jobs and income. They are generally did great in university, being respected in their fields, and therefore secured jobs and in some cases, career. It is understandable that when the whole pandemic happened, and if they are not being affected by the economy, then defensive cocoon is definitely an appropriate choice to go. (Defensive cocoon is a term in chess where you just put all the pieces next to your king to weather the enemy’s attacks).

It is quite easy to spot these people, especially with limitation in travels and reason to go out. Some behaviours include:

• Being lazy to go out (within the rules), and if going out, they are the ones who look at the time first in the group.
• Avoid drastic changes, even if they know it’s right for them. Changes can be relationships, jobs, place to live, etc.
• Often use the phrase: “Once we get out of this…” Every exciting things are pushed into the future, leaving all other things in the present.

I think it is a perfectly reasonable way to deal with the crisis. However, there are little contributions from these people to other people, or to the humankind as a whole. But at the end, they may survive, and that is important.

The rule-breakers

Let’s put aside the anti-vax and anti-mask people, since they generally fall into this category. In this section, I only want to talk about those who break the rules in a more subtle way, but still think they are in the right.

One thing to note is that I have done breaking the rules as well. This is only what I observe from myself and from other people. Most common things that we do is that despite curfews and restrictions, we find every ways to get out of the house, even though it’s not deemed necessary. And we tell ourselves things such as:

• I can’t stay at home, I’m an outgoing person.
• It’s only a few hours.
• I just want to have some fresh air, I didn’t come into contact with anyone.
• I have work permits, they can’t fine me. (my all time favourite, also apply people who has permits to do charity works)
• I have freedom and rights, noone can restrain me.
• …

My thought on this is, it is somewhat selfish to justify going against the rules to satisfy oneself the “need” to go out. The 3rd and 4th lockdown in Melbourne happened partly because of the one unlucky person who did exactly that.

So, if you don’t want to break rules, or get tired doing so, what else could you do?

The hobbyists

“I am experimenting something new”, “I just started on the thing that I’ve always wanted.”, “I plan to do this and that”. These are the typical sentences that I hear my friends say every now and then in the last 18 months. And it is quite exciting and beneficial to start a new hobby or a new business idea. But I have some concerns when certain signals appear. Considering this scenario: a person who has never touched anything musical, suddenly announced that they want to start on not one, but two different musical instruments. Or a person who has never started a business, and then plans to start 2 different businesses within a span of 6 months. Something doesn’t add up here.

My hypothesis is that these people are just looking for something, anything, to distract them from the real issues. Most common ones are binge-watching movies and TV-series, but I purposely exclude them from this category. I only want to look at people who start something new during this time. The truth is that to build an actual hobby or a business, you need to focus on doing just that one thing. Juggling multiple things at once will either exhaust you, or you will end up with nothing done, because everything is half-baked.

This is me speaking from experience, I used to do a lot of different things in my free time, all at once, e.g. building electrical circuits, playing guitar, playing piano, rubik speed-solving, etc. And let me tell you, I ended up knowing a little of everything, but nothing to be proud of. I would rather do one thing and be an expert in it.

From the observation, it seems like these people does not have any goal in life. They simply live and go with the flow. “You Only Live Once” mentality. People with goals behave differently. They are focused on one thing at a time and do not stray from it. This is why those people are quite boring to talk to sometimes. As all they know is that one thing and you will end up listening to the same thing all the time when you talk to them. But those people are the ones that actually make things happen and change the world around them.

The world changers

These are the ones that I admire the most. They believe that it doesn’t matter what is happening out there, how they respond to it is the only thing that matters. They happily adapt to the new circumstances, and even thrive from it. They rarely listen to news, but they know everything related to the topics that interest them. World changers believe in helping people get what they want, and in turn, they receive what they deserve.

I happen to be a part of a small group of people who strive to be the best at what they do. We all have our own goal written down and carried with us all the time. It’s the compass that guide us when we feel lost. The written text prevents us from doing anything that does not contribute to achieving that goal. I pretty much have the text in front of me all the time when I’m working. And when I’m walking outside, the tiny piece of paper is felt in my pocket as a constant reminder.

It’s not that hard to spot these kind of people. They can always recite their goal in a 1-2 sentences without even thinking. The best thing is that I always have a feeling when I talk to different people, whether they are focused on their goal or not. Sadly I have not encounter anyone outside the group who is determined to get to their destination, by any means necessary. But maybe one day I will.

Summary

People have different ways to respond to the change in circumstances. Above are just 4 different ones that I observed. Without a doubt, I want to be one of the world changers, because if I only live once, why not lead a life that affects as many people as I can in a positive way.

In Part 3, I note down a summary of what have I done in the last 18 months that contribute to my goal, and how I ignore almost all news that are non-related to my goal.

“Clarity and simplicity are the antidotes to complexity and uncertainty.” – General George Casey

By Tuan Nguyen