It’s Okay To Lose Progress On Your Goals During This Time

Things are rather shaky and up in the air at the moment in terms of policies, projects, work, and other events due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This is a time more different and peculiar than we have ever experienced as a human collective.

During times of unrest and anxiety, particularly at this level, it’s totally normal to feel like everything you’ve worked towards has fallen apart. For some of us, that is more tangible than we want to think about, like people who have stock in the stock market. For others, it might be things that are no longer in our control, like our goal of going to the gym every day being put on hold. And yet, for others, it could be that a goal like eating healthy has taken a backseat due to anxious tendencies to binge eat.

Whatever the case, know that it’s totally normal during times of stress for us to fall back into old habits or to lose progress in our goals. Try not to beat yourself up for things that are out of your control. And even if you feel like you should be able to control it, allow yourself this time to perhaps take a break from things that you would have included in your normal routine.

I’m thinking of this as a time to really be with myself and to rest. To breathe. To heal. To take time to do things I normally would not have had time for, like spending quality time with my family. And in doing these things, other things that I might normally have focused on, like working or going to the gym every day, will have to take a backseat for now.

We will all know a new normal eventually. Slowly you will be able to find new ways to achieve those goals, or you might even set new goals for yourself. Eventually, this quarantine will be over and we will all be in a rebuilding phase. We are all in this together. The positive thing about these sorts of catastrophic events is to see humanity coming together, either to share in the strife we are all going through or to be creative and find new ideas on how to survive.

At the end of this, we might come out more focused on the things that are most important to us. We might have new goals for ourselves. But don’t be too hard on yourself if you are losing track of an old goal that might no longer serve you in a new normal.