If You Don’t Have A New Skill After COVID-19 You’ve Wasted Your Time

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Pexels | Brosteni, Romania

It’s hard to get very far online without being slammed with countless COVID-19 posts about how to work from home or how to be more productive. Add to that, there are even more posts talking about how to start a home business, and why anyone can be an online millionaire with just three easy monthly payments.

While some of the information is incredibly useful, don’t miss the point of it all.

If you don’t have a new skill or a vastly improved skill after this COVID-19 dilemma, you’ve wasted your time.

And when I say skill, this could mean something personally or commercially valuable. If you stayed up every night trying to master Robert Johnson’s Delta Blues licks on your guitar, I’d say you did something useful with your time.

For the more income-stressed COVID-19 survivors, are you mastering a skill set for work that’s in massive demand? I’ve written about these kinds of skills before where the middle manager or someone lower on the totem pole learns a career-boosting skill set that gets them recognized by the top brass and a raise.

Isn’t that what we should be doing?

This is a time of reflection and refiguring our lives. It’s a time for discovering for the first time ever what a good night’s rest means: we’re talking a full 10-hour sleep here! Sure, many of us are connecting and reconnecting with loved ones. That’s a given.

Heck, I even wrote a friend who I haven’t spoken to in fifteen years out of sheer boredom, though I doubt he’ll respond. (I just wanted to thank him for teaching me how to ride a motorcycle on his $13,000 Ducati Monster. I’m forever in his debt.) Beyond all that new normal stuff and watching that weird Tiger show on Netflix, we’ve got plenty of time to do something productive too.

What I fear is that the screens will win during this time and we’ll have nothing to show for it.

It’s so easy to just watch TV all day or listen to something on our phone that’s monopolizing our brainpower. Furthermore, it’s easy to pass the time eating out of boredom and gaining more weight in two months than you did your entire first year in college.

Stop that!

Take advantage of this time you’re quarantined. In the pre-quarantined era, people always thought that too much time alone was selfish in a bad way. Now it’s okay.

Thrive in this alone time and do something great.

Though it may seem like an eternity, we’ll be back to the good ol’ days soon where we can venture out of our homes and high-five our neighbors. Soon we’ll all be able to mingle in the crowds like we used to (well, maybe still about three feet away from each other for a while).

Before we know it, we’ll be slammed together on some bus or elevator somewhere trying to get to work. And when we walk through that door, can we say we’re better off than when we left? Can we play catch-up and rule new projects with an iron fist because we developed some new chops for work?

I’m hoping you’ll be able to say yes.

Sadly, many of us will be forced to change careers. However, some of us will go back to work stronger than ever. It’s our improved skills that will prove we have greater value in the workplace.

What skill or business will you explore during the COVID-19 quarantine?

Here are some ideas: Design Sprints, Social Media Marketing, UX/UI, Data Analysis, Freelance Writing, Meditation, Amazon FBA, Swing Trading, Amazon Audiobook Income, Personal Branding, Guitar Picking, or Content Marketing.

Photo by Bich Tran | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

So create a two-month calendar or sixty-day countdown. (I’m just spit-balling the time frame here.) Fill your days with something to do and cross out each day. Write down weekly milestones you want to achieve each week and monitor your progress. But most importantly . . .

And don’t tell a soul!

Why?

Purely for the bragging rights when this thing is over. Just kidding. Sorta.

But also, maybe you’re mastering a skill because you’re grateful. You’re grateful that you dodged the COVID-19 bullet unlike thousands of others.

Don’t have survivor’s guilt!

Honor those who have died or suffered by doing something they could never do with their time. Live big for them. Create the value in the world that is lucrative and your life’s joy.

Figure it out now and get to work!

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