50 Things I’ve Learned In The Past 30 Days

I remember flying to LAX on the morning of March 13th. The NBA had cancelled the remainder of the season 36 hours before I took off and the situation was starting to get serious. The feeling in my stomach was that I was shouldn’t be on the plane and for the next three hours, I planned my immediate trip home. That night I slept in my bed in Vancouver, started a 14-day quarantine, and so began the start of an evolutionary period of my life that frankly, I wasn’t ready for or welcoming.

Over the past weeks I’ve worked hard to understand feelings, where they’re coming from, and what they mean. I April I wrote my first 50 things piece and thought it would be a good idea to follow-up with what I’ve learned and observed this past month.

1. Money isn’t in the bank until money is actually in the bank
2. Home cooking is more healthy than eating at a restaurant. Usually
3. The 7 stages of grief aren’t always experienced in order, nor just once
4. My feelings are my feelings and while they’re easier to bury, acknowledging them and validating them has been the best way to understand them
5. Talking to people helps
6. A win is a win, no matter how big or small
7. Sleep can be a productivity booster if it is used right
8. Perspective matters. Location, age, sex, status, wealth, security, etc.
9. There is always a big part of our day that we have complete control of regardless of what is happening outside of our control
10. There is a risk spectrum that spans more broadly than I thought imaginable
11. I have a new admiration and respect for essential workers
12. ‘How are you?’ is one of the most underrated questions we can ask
13. Listen, listen, listen, speak
14. We can’t multitask
15. My screen time usage chart oddly resembles the daily case count charts with an apex in late April
16. I can’t pull off a moustache
17. Park > TV
18. Zoom doesn’t have to be the default communication tool
19. A check-in doesn’t have to last an hour for people to know and feel you care about them and want to say hello
20. Clear instructions and guidelines seem to have disappeared mid-March
21. Innovation is either forced (COVID) or chosen (giving time and space to create)
22. Force majeure?
23. Incredible leaders have emerged in the past weeks. Thank them.
24. Politicians have generally done an exceedingly good job
25. We can’t predict the future but we have to plan for it anyway
26. Was there ever a normal?
27. Research will often say what you want it to say when you’re the one asking the questions
28. Experimentation seems trivial but the art lies not in the plan, but the action
29. Specialists seem to be doing better than generalists
30. A change of scenery sure is nice, isn’t it?
31. Innovation comes in many, many forms
32. A clean anything (mind, office, house) is a great place to start
33. ‘Who am I?’ might yield a different answer now than it did last year. That’s growth.
34. In life, there is no finish line, no race, no winner, and our only competition is ourselves
35. Measure lots of things, but only to learn, not necessarily to add pressure/expectations
36. If something isn’t working, stop doing it and expecting a different result
37. Leave technology in different rooms when possible
38. Look people in the eyes when speaking to them, you’ll hear them more clearly and see what they don’t tell you
39. Dropping off little gifts to friends is a day-maker for both us and them
40. Ask different questions to get different answers
41. Language is important. What people say isn’t always what they mean (or what you understand)
42. Change is only scary until you accept it, then it can be empowering
43. Explore new parts of your city/town. You’ll be surprised what you find
44. Maybe, in a way, this is what we needed to get to where we wanted to go next, faster
45. Help is always there. Use it.
46. Play games
47. Sing songs
48. Laugh lots
49. Cry if you need to
50. Time goes one speed whether we like it or not and when we look back, it will have either flown by or crawled. Either way, there will be a time when we look back on this and there will be only a select few things we remember. Create those positive things to remember this time by and hang on to them tight.