Facing Our Fears By Learning From COVID-19

As humans, we tend to judge our future under the microscope of past experiences. We look at the past to try to figure out what comes next. However, COVID-19 is the first pandemic to truly circle the globe affecting everyone on the planet. Facing our fears by learning from COVID-19 is difficult when we have no past experiences that match.

Recent pandemics like SARS and H1NI provided some insight into fighting the spread of a virus. Past pandemics like Spanish Flu and Bubonic Plague provided insight into the high toll on human life. But these have been little help in providing benchmarks for fighting such a fast-moving, highly contagious, and unpredictable virus we see today.

But today we are looking at facing our fears in the aftermath of this pandemic.

Facing Our Fears: A lesson from the FBI

Facing our fears during a pandemic doesn’t mean standing unmasked and unwashed in front of a ward full of COVID-19 patients. Although, sometimes facing our fears can be a little dangerous. I used to be terrified of heights until I forced myself to go rock climbing.

But, facing our fears does not always include defying danger, ignoring consequences, or risking life and limb. Think about it. If you’re afraid of trains, you don’t stand in front of a train hoping it will stop on time. No, you take a train ride somewhere.

Life is like the Coronavirus. You never know what you’re gonna get.

My adaptation from Forest Gump.

I read a great article by  LaRae Quy, who is a former FBI counterintelligence and undercover agent and founder of the Mental Toughness Center. She explains it this way.

“When we feel in control, we’re not afraid and when we have a level of comfort with something, it’s not scary. When we don’t feel in control, we don’t think clearly because our emotional brain is in the driver’s seat and takes over. This is why fear often seems random and irrational—our emotions are in control.

To increase safety, FBI agents are taught to move closer to the threat. It does no good to avoid, deny or ignore the fear…

Harvard Medical School professor Ronald Siegel recommends this in his book, The Mindfulness Solution: Think about your worst fear. Spend time with it. Now make your fear worse by getting closer to it. Imagine the worst that could happen. Now focus on your breathing. Feel your body relax. See, you didn’t die, did you? You’re on your way to conquering your fear.

If you don’t believe in yourself, how do you expect anybody else to?”

Facing Our Fears By Learning From COVID-19 on Finances

I realize many of you may have suffered financially through this pandemic. I was blessed to have a university who allowed professors to move all classes online. But my wife had just shortly retired. So, we definitely felt the pressure and fear of what may come next.

But either way, we can all learn some financial lessons.

1. Live within your means. Come on people. Unless you are providing for a large family, no person living in a prosperous country should live hand to mouth. Stop making excuses. There are many ways to save money, things you could cut back on, and ways to make an extra buck.

2. Have cash on hand.  Back in the Dotcom Crash and days of Y2K, I realized the rainy-day fund was a good idea. I figured out what I needed to live on per month. Then started setting money aside. A few years later, I had enough saved up to last a year. I kept in cash and then started saving money for my brokerage account. Today you can buy stocks and bonds without paying a cent in fees from nearly every online broker.

 3. Do not let fear influence your investing. Warren Buffett- said be fearful when everyone’s greedy and greedy when everyone is fearful. CNBC says there were 26 market corrections since WW2. With an average decline of 13% and a recovery of only 4 months on average. So, next time there’s a drop in the market, buy a solid dividend-paying company with a good earnings record and low debt levels. Or if you have enough money invest in some real estate, precious metals, or even art.

Facing Our Fears By Learning from COVID-19 on our future.

Like I said before, we often look at the past to try to figure out what comes next. But since we have not experienced anything like this, what can we do?

1. Realize the future is always unknown.  Yes, life is like the Coronavirus.  We are all just flying by the seat of our pants. We pretty much make things up as we go along. Just like every government on the planet is doing right now.

2. Don’t live in the past. If we live our life looking backward, we are going to trip. Please do whatever it takes to deal with your past fears, hurts, failures, and pain. See a counselor, go to therapy, join a support group. Don’t wallow in your past. Pick yourself up, get help, and start moving forward.

3. Make your future.  Start planning. Set some goals. Write out your dreams. Go back to school. Learn something new. Start a hobby. Don’t let life happen. Make it happen.

4. Acknowledge setbacks are just part of life. Please don’t kick yourself every time you fail. Don’t blame others or pass the buck. You are not really that special. Setbacks are part of life. Everyone must fall and then get back up.  The problem is letting our fears stop us from getting back up!

Facing Our Fears: A lesson from a good movie.

The movie – What about Bob? – provides a hilarious take on facing our fears. It stars Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. It is about a psychiatrist named Dr. Leo Marvin who writes a book called Baby Steps. Which explains how to face one’s fears by taking one small step at a time.

Following the book’s advice, Bob starts to overcome his various psychosomatic issues. Of course, the problem starts when Bob decides to tell Dr. Leo the good news. The only problem is Dr. Leo is on a family vacation.  Not being dissuaded, Bob faces his fears and takes a trip. Of course, Dr. Leo is not excited about Bob showing up at his family’s cabin and tells Bob to schedule an appointment like a regular patient.

However, Bob gets other ideas after he meets the doctor’s children. They, of course, think he is cute and invite him to tag along. Over the course of the movie, Dr. Marvin’s wife and children help Bob overcome his fears. While the doctor becomes more and more agitated along the way. By the end of the movie, the tables are switched, and Bob looks like the normal guy, while Dr. Marvin looks like the crazy one.

The most memorable scene is when Bob allows himself to be tied to the mast of a sailboat, so he can get over his fear of water. And sometimes drastic steps may be needed to overcome our fears. Especially if they get in the way of living our life.