Our Forced Social Isolation Is An Opportunity

“Opportunity is missed because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

— Anonymous

The world as we knew it is gone. A pandemic has taken it from us. When the pandemic is over, a new world will replace it.

The new world will be different in unpredictable ways. But we can guess at some of them. Remote work and remote education will probably be more viable options than they ever have been. It will probably be easier for employers to call sick days, and it will probably be easier for disabled people to find work-from-home roles in society. The federal budget will be changed forever. Student loan debt may be forgiven. Universal Basic Income may become policy in more than just a few ignored corners of the world.

We don’t know how it will be, though. Right now, we’re just stuck in our homes, waiting to see how it turns out.

And while we’re stuck in our homes, there will be two groups of us.

In the first group will be all the people who merely watched the time go by. In this group will be people who binge-watched every show on Netflix, ate their way through the limited frozen food aisle of their local grocery store, purchased a year’s worth of video games, and didn’t wear anything other than pajamas (except for grocery store day). Most people will have been in this group.

In the second group will be people who treated isolation not as a cost, but as an opportunity. In this group will be people who created home fitness routines and stuck to them, who maintained a regular sleep and work schedule despite not needing to, and who used their layoff and subsequent government support as a state-subsidized opportunity to educate themselves. They used their free time to video chat friends and engage in meaningful hobbies.

Group one will enter the new world confused, tired, and twenty pounds heavier. They will be unprepared for the new world and struggle to reintegrate themselves.

Group two will enter the new world strong, confident, and ready for the new world that awaits. They will know what value they can provide the world and will have no trouble securing work.

All of us have a choice: which group are we going to be in?

I recognize that it’s difficult. We all want to be in group two, but it’s not that easy. It’s hard to convince yourself to get out of bed when you have nowhere to be and nothing to do because you were laid off from your dream job because your dream company closed its doors. It’s hard to get out of bed when you’re the executive who had to make the decision to close the doors. If you were laid off from your service industry work, it’s hard to convince yourself to get out of bed because finally, for once in your life, you don’t have to wake up every day and go do your service industry work. It’s also hard to get out of bed when you have no idea how any of the bills are going to be paid and you feel like society is falling apart. I recognize all of these things.

And look, I’m no angel. I’m doing my fair share of wasting my own time. I’m not writing very much, and the stress of quarantine on my new relationship is causing me to pick far more fights with my boyfriend than is necessary.

But that needs to stop. Buried within this challenge is an opportunity. The entire world has been placed on pause. If you’ve always felt behind, if you’ve always felt like you haven’t had the money or the time or the resources to do what you need to do, now is your chance. Want to escape your service industry job? Use this time to start your side hustle. Want to move up in your career? Use this time to learn the skills you need. Want to finally lose that weight? Use this time to learn bodyweight exercises in the comfort of your own home.

People recognize these are extraordinary times, and they are stepping up. Coursera is offering free courses. Pat Flynn is offering Smart From Scratch for free. Masterclass.com is running a buy one get one deal. Plenty of independent creators like me are offering our courses for free right now. And of course, there is a treasure trove of always-free resources like Codecademy.com, Duolingo, and YouTube. If ever there were a time to start making your dreams come true, now would be it.

I know this story is going to make some people angry. I’ve already seen stories on Medium saying we should stop glorifying self-improvement and just do what we can to get through this time.

I’m not trying to pretend it isn’t bad out there. It is. But that doesn’t mean we have to be on the defensive. It’s going to suck either way, but it’s going to suck a lot less if we use this time wisely.

Psychiatrists tell us one of the most effective treatments for depression is exercise. Tell that to a depressed person, though, and you often get an incredulous response. “How could I exercise right now!? I’m so tired and depressed!” As a society, we are in the same situation. Now, when it feels almost impossible to step up to the plate, is exactly when we need to do it the most.

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