Mindset During Quarantine

Only Go Out For Essential Reasons!

This is the golden rule here. I have been following these instructions to the best of my ability and needed to go to Home Depot for some supplies. At that point, I had been in for about 5 days in a row and. Before we get into this, let me say that the people working that day at Home Depot were great. I appreciate them for helping me. That said. I did not know what I was in for and was definitely not prepared to deal with the public.

It started when I hit the parking lot. There were so many people trying to park, and I felt sluggish and slow making decisions and operating the car. I dodged some cars trying to leave the parking lot. I missed some cars backing out of spaces and finally found a spot I was comfortable with.

Holding my panic attack at bay, I donned my face mask and equipped the hand sanitizer and made my way int the entrance.

Boom! I’m bombarded with a wave of confusion and anxiety as I realize that I have no idea where to start and I have spoken face to face with a person I so long. I scan the area and see an employee not already helping a customer. I made eye contact and approached with a smile even though I was wearing a mask. By the time I reached him, he had been intercepted by a rogue gardener. Ok, cool. I look for another employee and everyone I saw was already tied up with other customers. “F@#$-it” I think to myself. “I’ll just look around until I find it”. Truth be told I probably should have gone to the grocery store for what I needed. This made finding my supplies on my own aggravating. So many isles, so many people. I felt myself getting annoyed. Spotting an employee at the end of the aisle I was in. Once again, by the time I got to her she had spun off and seem to disappear.

By now I’m sure I look visibly upset and over it with the whole place. So I stopped and had a conversation with myself. I was losing control of how I felt and it was not helping me obtain my supplies. I thought about leaving and trying again at a less busy time. “No” I thought. “I’m here now, just get what I need and get out of here”. I had a conversation with myself. A conversation I have with myself a lot. Much like working behind a busy bar, I decided to use my professional system for communicating in “stressful situations”. The system starts with reeling in my attitude. So I ask myself… “who the hell am I?” With all that’s going on in the world these days why should anyone care about “my supplies”? “What makes me so special?” And I ask myself “ would I like to work here? Today?” After this conversation with myself, this attitude adjustment, I felt much better. Humbled and relaxed. I was actually standing right where one of the things I needed happened to be. And just then the first employee that I tried to ask for help when I arrived, approached me asking if I was finding everything ok. He pointed me in the right direction. I finished shopping, paid and was on my way.

This is the sort of thing that makes the system I teach I my mini course so valuable. At the end of the day, it about managing your own feelings and ego in a healthy way. This never stops. Everyday and almost every interaction can be much more productive and pleasurable when you possess strong communication skills because you need a healthy mindset in order to communicate effectively. These are learned skills and the advantages are personal as well as social and professional.

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