How to bounce back after a downtime?

Lockdown, work from home, indoors, business downtime and whatnot, at one point in time it looked like everything is getting back to normal, but COVID had some other plans, it returned so strong and the second wave in India is so far very stressful both mentally and financially. Personal and professional life has come to crossroads, many of us are clueless about how to navigate from here, I’m no exceptional but my combat with stress, anxiety and depression looks so far progressive, I have been extensively working on my mental peace by reading and doing a lot of good stuff. I felt, sharing my experiences at this moment will help you guys to stay positive and focused, here is how you can bounce back strong after a downtime.

1.Do your life audit

Doing a life audit is crucial for pinpointing where to make adjustments to jumpstart your new journey, time to relook into your skills, validate your expertise and practices.

Start by figuring out where you stand in the 8 areas of life – health, finances, personal development career, relationships, self-care, home life and free time.

Write down, what changes would make the biggest impact in your life for each area? Seek help from trusted people and mentors if you cannot figure it out on your own and start implementing it right now, this is the phase to take tough decisions and cut corners, you need to be extremely critical in analyzing deep root causes, pros and cons of all these 8 areas, have complete trust in your new checklist before implementing it.

2.Make a mindset shift

Your mindset is what sets the tone of everything in your life, changing your mindset is what will change your life. What we think and believe is what we act upon.

Change your perspective – From now on anytime anything negative happens, instead of feeling like a victim ask yourself what you can control or change, staying strong and focused is crucial at this point, try going places, start doing good stuff. Being strict and tough on yourself in the initial days is not a good idea, being clueless, partying, binge screen time, endless social media scrolling is okay initially but you need to quickly make a shift.

I personally prefer playing chess, cricket, camping, solo drives and reading self-help books, see whats your interests and engage in activities that make you feel good in and out.

3.Create a vision

Having a vision will help to have a clear sense of purpose, it means we have a much larger picture of our business or our life than simply setting and reaching short term goals and tackling problems as they come along. Visions are driven by passion and dreams and they are reflected through real efforts to create real results.

4.Work on yourself daily

Once you have your vision the fog lifts and your road map starts to become clear again. But, nobody is going to drive the car for you- you’ve got to put in the work to achieve your goals and change your life. Consistent daily practice is how you make that happen, if you watered the plant just a little each day, over time your garden always grew.

5.Design your environment for success

If you want to change your life, YOU aren’t the only thing that has to change- your environment has to change too. For instance, if you always hang out with negative thinking people, you’ll tend to believe the limitations they’re setting for you.

However, if you hang out with “doers” and other people who want to see you succeed, there’s a much higher chance that you will.

6.Learn new skills and improve upon your existing ones

Nothing will change your life faster than building new skills. First things first, create enough time to build your skills, invest in good books, great trips and buy some useful online courses which can further help in strengthening your skillset.

You can also learn them freely via books, videos, and podcasts, but don’t forget to physically practise your skills too, new skills are like new wings to fly, it can take you to the places you wish to reach.

7.Lastly, enjoy the process

The whole point of this exercise is to CHANGE. That means your thoughts and behaviours, in addition to your surroundings, will change throughout the year.

You may realise that what you initially sought isn’t what you want anymore. Don’t get so focused on the process that you lose sight of what you want and most important having fun…

Biz Innings

By Chaitanya Gundluri

Chaitanya Gundluri is a Serial Entrepreneur, Business Investor, Interviewer, Passionate Marketer, Business Blogger and an Influential Sales Leader.

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