Pandemic fatigue is real and can have a significant impact on you and your every day experience at work, at home, and beyond. With some degree of worry, frustration, anger, fear, and uncertainty possibly plaguing you for well over a year now, it’s easy to understand why the fatigue is real.
The question is what to do about it?
While there is no easy answer I believe it is always helpful to look within to start. It’s easy to place blame externally or even on yourself. But what if you chose not to blame… anyone? What if you, instead, chose to begin with noting your triggers. Then reverse engineer yourself to a place where you’ll regain a sense of control you felt was lost.
Voila, no more pandemic fatigue!
By reverse engineering yourself out of pandemic fatigue, you’ll regain a sense of control you felt was lost.
Here’s How To Combat Pandemic Fatigue?
Step 1: Note Your Triggers
Take notice of when you feel one of those emotions mentioned above, or similar negatively framed ones. Pause and ask yourself what it’s connected to.
For example you get frustrated or angry with a news story about a group of people gathering somewhere not far from where you live.
Or maybe you feel down or disillusioned by the story.
Steps In Reverse Engineering Your Pandemic Fatigue:
- Note Triggers
- Note Attitude
- Connect With Why
- See Core Value Impacted
- Take New Action
Step 2: Note Your Attitude
Then check in on what your attitude is related to that emotion.
Perhaps you are angry because the group of people is choosing to disobey current government restrictions. Perhaps you are angry because the people gathering are being portrayed in a negative light.
Then again maybe you feel disillusioned because you feel everything should be opened back up. Or you feel gatherings like that will continue to push back when we can actually be allowed to gather like that.
Just reading my examples might connect you with an emotion. It doesn’t matter what your attitude is, just check in with it.
Step 3: Connect With Your Why
Then ask yourself WHY you are feeling that particular way. That will lead you to an underlying belief.
You might believe that the path through this pandemic is for all to abide by restrictions and eventually we’ll get through it. Then again, you might believe that opening up is the right thing to do right now and that we’ve been through enough.
Again, your belief is your belief.
Step 4: See Your Core Value Being Impacted
As you begin to more clearly see what you believe you can now go one step deeper… to your core value.
In this example maybe it’s that you value personal freedom above all, or doing what it takes to help everyone, or a businesses right to be open, or less governmental control, or more governmental control.
Once again, your beliefs and values are yours. They have likely been formed long ago with the influence of key people in your world and experiences along the way. Now core values can serve you well or can limit you severely too. They often become an unconscious part of who you are and how you live. Only to be unveiled through your emotions and attitudes.
Living in alignment with values that serve you well is a great thing. Living out of alignment with values that serve you well or aligned with those that do not serve you will lead to negative emotions and attitudes. Living in conflict with your values, in either way just mentioned, is a sure fire way to develop pandemic fatigue.
Sometimes we see it in others who are acting in ways not aligned with your values. Sometimes it you who is out of alignment.
So now that you can more clearly see one of your core values in action you can also determine whether or not a counter action is needed to reverse your path and interrupt the cause of your pandemic fatigue.
Is the news story of the people gathering aligned with your values or not? Have you been part of such a gathering and are you judging yourself one way or the other?
Step 5: Reverse Your Old Ways And Take New Action
So now that you have reverse engineered an event, in this case involving others and not you, you get to choose how you respond.
It has affected you. Choose to do nothing and it continues to affect you and you continue to feel angry, frustrated or disillusioned.
Depending on your alignment or mis-alignment with your underlying values you may choose to act in any number of ways.
You may choose to actively or passively boycott the group or business where the gathering is at. You may choose to protest and join in the next time. You may choose to turn off and avoid watching the news trusting that the light nearing the end of the tunnel and we’ll all get there despite a few highlighted events like this one.
The point of it all is that if you stay stuck in emotion related to things you have no control over or choose not to take any action on it, then you will continue to feel pandemic fatigue. It will cross over and impact everywhere in your life. However long restrictions stay in effect or the pandemic remains a serious concern, your fatigue will stay with you.
When you reverse engineer your pandemic fatigue to the underlying core values they impact you can choose to take the action that aligns best with the values that serve you. You can also choose to shift or change values that do not or no longer serve you.
The Resulting Benefit To You
In making a choice along these lines you bring some control back to you. Rather than have this pandemic continue to only act on you, you can now control or influence how you respond and subsequently how you feel about it all.
That, my friend will take a huge weight of emotion off your shoulders.
However you feel about the pandemic and your experience of pandemic fatigue, there will be a day when we all look back at it as just that crazy, disrupted time in our lives. Why not make the stories you tell about it, ones that frame it as positive as possible.
In the mean time, know that it is not always easy to create this change on your own. Our One Wave Global Community is a safe place to connect with people who are on a similar path of change as you who are committed to their own change while supporting others through theirs. Consider joining us.
So what’s your next step?
Creating the change you want can be hard if you go it alone!
