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As the world takes unprecedented measures to flatten the COVID-19 curve, we have reluctantly come to embrace social distancing as our temporary, new way of life. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by our sudden restricted movement during this strange and challenging time. Our habits and lifestyles have been indefinitely put on pause without a clear view of what the future holds. But with every challenge comes the opportunity to rise above. We do have a choice. We can crumble in a sea of negativity and despair or put on our excellence pants one leg at a time and transform our social distance into our own personal brilliance.
Social distancing is affording us much more than a chance to slow the transmission of the novel virus. It has given us a secret gift that can forever change who we are and the choices that we make in the future: Time. If we choose to take advantage of this extra time and use it wisely by investing it in developing skills and knowledge that help us to perform to our highest potentials, then we can emerge from this difficult period with even brighter futures ahead. With the internet at our disposal, and time on our side, we can start developing into better beings for tomorrow. Here are some excellent ways you can turn social distance into social brilliance.
Learn a new language
Learning a new language has never been easier. With quality free apps like Duo Lingo and a little bit of commitment, you can start learning nearly any widely spoken language right now. You can even connect with a native speaker through social apps like Busuu. Learning a new language has tons of benefits including improved cognition and thinking, faster memory recall and networking. All of these benefits can only help your future.
Get certified
The economy will take a hit. However, there is a ton of opportunity to be found during an economic downturn. To be prepared to take advantage of new markets, you may want to consider bolstering your credentials by getting certified. Online educational markets are as advanced as ever and there are endless courses you can start taking right now on practically any subject and for practically any price. Websites like Coursera, Udemy, and Alison offer free and paid courses in a variety of topics. Even leading educational institutions like MIT and Harvard offer a select few courses that you can take for FREE!
Read
You’re probably well aware of the benefits of reading. You probably already know that the majority of successful people from Warren Buffet to Oprah to Bill Gates have pretty substantial reading habits and credit that to a lot of their life achievements. However, most of us don’t dedicate as much time as we should to reading, typically quoting a lack of time as the biggest culprit. Great news! You’ve got a whole lot of extra time now so why not establish reading into your daily habit? Download the kindle app or order some good old paperbacks from Amazon. For you auditory learners out there, you can also download the Audible app for free and get access to thousands of their audiobooks for an entire month at no charge.
Connect
You often hear parents lament about how their work life schedule robs them of time with their children. Great news, the kids are probably not going to be returning to school for a while. Yes, that may mean extra sacrifices and more work at home, but it’s also an amazingly rare opportunity to connect with your children in a way that modern society doesn’t often allow. Read stories, play games, and bake cookies. Ask your kids questions and really get to understand their minds. Talk to them and get them to understand you. It’s a rare opportunity to be given the space to connect with your family this way. Take advantage.
Truthfully the options to turn this time of social distancing into a period of productive growth are endless. We do have to maintain vigilance and be aware that the world has found itself in the midst of a rather serious predicament. However, that doesn’t mean that we halt our progress as individuals. It just means that we will have to improvise to expose our own brilliance.
