LET GO OF THE HOLDING PATTERN

or How To Do More Than Just Survive

We developed some bad habits over the past few years.
Let me tell you about them…

We drank more.
We ate more.
(If we were lucky) We did less.
Because what was the point of doing more?

The pandemic isn’t completely over, I realize that, but we’re in a very different place than we were in three years ago.

Yet, I caught myself the other day stuck in that holding pattern.
That weird limbo we all were dropped into in spring of 2020.
Where it felt like if you survived the day, that was all that you could hope for.
We stayed home (those of us who were lucky enough to).
We watched Netflix.
We ate snacks.
We decided that it was five o’ clock somewhere as of lunchtime.

It was a weird mix of fatalism and apathy.
A combination of ‘do whatever you want’ but we couldn’t really do anything.

Make no mistake, it affected us all. Deeply.
It scarred all of us.
It broke some of us.

Since things have improved (thank you, science) I’ve made good on some of those promises I made to myself in the depths of that crapulent time… go to concerts, travel, travel to go to concerts, upgrade when you can, in general, appreciate life more and don’t take it for granted.

But last week, I caught myself ignoring opportunity… and not just one opportunity, but many.

I realized I had eased my grip on my goals and loosened my grasp on what I wanted to do next.

That’s no good.

There is tremendous benefit that came from that time of forced introspection during the pandemic (again, still kinda going and not dead yet… like a monster in a horror film, don’t assume it’s over). I think less of us are willing to waste our time. In fact, many of us are now acutely aware of the value of our time. Which explains people leaving certain industries (read: crappy jobs) to pursue things they truly enjoy.

That’s good.

However I think for some of us, including myself, we might be still stuck in a holding pattern. A holding pattern where we were subconsciously traumatized by how the fragility of life was made plainly evident to us. A holding pattern where we settle for survival instead of striving for survival and progress and growth.

That’s no good.
And it has to change.

Life remains as fragile as it ever was.
Your time here on Earth is not guaranteed.
Life is messy, unpredictable and inconvenient.

Life, to be best enjoyed, demands that we laugh in the face of that adversity and do the most defiant thing we can… move bravely and inexplicably forward.

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(Pictured: Author and wife, Shannon, abandon fear and almost lunch as they speed forward into better days)

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NOTE

As part of my own effort to let go of the holding pattern, I’m going to doing some rejigging of this Substack account.
This will include posting humourous (hopefully) takes on Canadian and International news as it happens throughout the week as well this same weekly newsletter which will remain focused on sharing my insights on ways that I hope will help you as much as they’ve helped me.

I’ll also be including some content exclusively for paid subscribers that will include access to recorded live video podcasts.

I’ve been very fortunate to build a very successful, albeit ridiculous, ‘career’ on the back of various social media platforms but it’s time to build my own Community. Thanks to Substack and their new features like ‘Notes’ (like Twitter but less weirdos - not zero, but less) where we can chat easily, I think this is a good place to start.

I greatly appreciate your support and hope you’ll be part of the community!