Take The Michael Levin COVID-19 Challenge

This whole coronavirus thing wasn’t my idea, believe me.

But since it’s here, how can we make the best of this unusual situation?

Business coach Lee Brower, says that it’s pointless to ask, “Why is this happening to me?” because questions like that enhance a sense of victimhood.

Instead, Brower suggests that it’s wiser to ask, “Why is this happening for me?” In other words, what can I get out of this?

I don’t mean, how can I make a dollar off the virus. I do mean, as long as we have this enforced period of standing down from our usual occupations and distractions, how can we make the most of this experience?

So here’s my challenge to you.

Call it the Michael Levin COVID-19 challenge.

When they blow the whistle and give the all-clear sign, where do you want to be?

Rather than continuing to binge-watch Netflix over the next few weeks, what can you accomplish with this unique chunk of time?

Can you get closer to your loved ones, especially those under the same roof?

Are there people you know who are lonely and scared because of their age, their health, or another reason, whom you could call today and maybe every day until this passes?

Could you go to Coursera.com or one of its brethren and take a free course with a nationally acclaimed professor?

Can you go through your house and get rid of all the accumulated junk you don’t need, clothing you don’t wear, items you don’t use, and so on, and have them ready to donate when the Salvation Army’s and the Goodwill’s of the world reopen?

Can you use this time to ask yourself whether you are thriving or merely surviving? If it’s the latter, what would it take for you to feel otherwise about your life? Are there changes you need to make that you’ve been putting off or refusing to face?

If you hate your job, it’s because you have someone else’s job and you hate that person’s job. If you had your job, the thing that you’re meant to do and you love to do, you wouldn’t hate it. So ask yourself whose job you have, yours or someone else’s.

Are there apologies you need to make and relationships you need to set right?

Do you need to get some more exercise? Is it time to rediscover the fact that the thing you’re using as a hat rack is actually a treadmill? Are there a few extra pounds that, when you emerge from this forced hibernation, you’d like to make disappear?

To go back to Brower’s point, if you ask yourself, “Why is this happening to me?” you’re setting yourself up for anxiety, depression, self-pity, and worse.

But if you ask yourself, “Why is this happening for me?” you might come up with an answer so positive that you will always look back on this period of your life and say, “Thank goodness I made those changes when I had the chance.”

Problems — even pandemics — have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

As it says in the Bible, “And it came to pass,” not “And it came to stay.”

So as long as we will emerge from this experience, why not treat it like a chrysalis?

It’s time to stop being a caterpillar and it’s time to start being a butterfly.

I’ll see you on the other side.

Make that, I’ll see the new you on the other side.