Hey Satan, paid my dues Playing in a rocking band, I’m on the highway to hell
So sang Australian rock-band, AC/DC, in 1979.
They didn’t write the lyrics knowing COVID would upend life in 2020, but we could definitely adopt the song as our mantra.
“I’m on the highway to hell”
It sure feels like we’re on the highway to hell thanks to COVID.
Just a few months ago, we celebrated the dawn of a new decade. No sign of COVID as we gathered with friends and family to close out the 2010s.
When did you first become aware of a new, lethal virus taking hold in a Chinese province?
The virus confidently moved beyond China, the opportune moment to embed itself into the daily life of billions of people, knowing that most countries were not alert to the danger.
Now it’s fully embedded and seemingly very sticky — the ultimate viral App.
It was downloaded but you can’t delete it. Damn!!!
With the dramatic, unexpected changes to daily life, so many people are experiencing emotional fatigue, trying to appear strong and resolute, knowing all the while that they are hanging on by a gossamer thread.
And how are you doing?
Don’t say, “oh I’m OK”. That’s a stock answer and most of the time its bullshit.
Know that it’s fine to answer that question, “I’m stressed, I’m worried and I can’t sleep”. That’s the truthful answer for about half of the world’s population.
Our stress builds as uncertainty grows.
Uncertainty is a vacuum and a vacuum must be filled.
Lack of transparency is a vacuum too and it’s often filled with wild speculation as to what’s really happening.
Life in an uncertainty vacuum is a kind of torture and it’s a cruel form of torture given most of us haven’t ever lived in dramatically uncertain times.
As your thoughts drift toward your future, what do you see?
Right now, for most of us, the view ahead is foggy. There’s a lack of clarity — we’re in the uncertainty vacuum.
Many people are filling that vacuum with stress and we know stress is not just emotionally draining, it also opens our physiology to all kinds of viral invaders and can often lead to postural dysfunction.
So, yes, STRESS IS A TERRIBLE AFFLICTION.
It’s unlikely the COVID uncertainty will clear anytime soon and our personal stress is an issue we all need to deal with — but how!!
The Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome, who lived 2,000 years ago, also dealt with high levels of uncertainty over centuries.
They practiced the Stoic fork: “some things are up to you, and others are not.”
If you can get comfortable with that basic tenet of Stoicism then you have a chance to get on top of the stress associated with uncertainty.
Go somewhere where you can be solitary, where you can verbalize your thoughts, yes, as in talking to yourself. Literally tell yourself that “some things are up to you, and others are not.” Or take a meditation class. Or sit with a friend and open up about struggling with all the uncertainty, but above all, know that “some things are up to you, and others are not.”
The Stoics also preached that “The greatest personal wealth in your life is acquiring the wisdom to use your agency*”. It remains true that leveraging your agency is the most important goal in life, everything else is trivial in comparison.
These two changes are the foundation to be calm about uncertainty so you can focus on your Agency; your pathway to leading a fulfilled life.
I’m not sure that we are on a Highway to Hell, but I am certain some of us will feel like the AC-DC song is a mantra of daily life.
Do what you can to limit or ideally eliminate stress. You alone can’t control the uncertainty; you can take steps to focus on your agency.
Happy 41st birthday “Highway to Hell”.
*Agency: the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. By contrast, structure are factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc.) that determine or limit an agent and their decisions. Most agree there are three types of agency: individual, proxy, and collective. Individual agency is when a person acts on his/her own behalf, whereas proxy agency is when an individual acts on behalf of someone else (such as an employer). Collective agency occurs when people act together, such as a social movement. — definition courtesy of Wikipedia
About the Author:
Greg Twemlow is a Sydney-based Social Enterprise Founder | Startup Mentor | CEO | Writer | Speaker | Host of https://medium.com/consilio
