Let this lockdown serve you your first lesson. When a problem comes your way- it is your problem, and you want to know everything there is to know about it before you even start finding a solution.

If someone else is explaining the problem to you, it means you are not smart enough or vigilant enough to have made an effort on your own to find out. That is a strong message that you are a passive player in life. That perception will ruin your game.

If you don’t care to understand the problem, you will buy any solution without question, opening doors for agendas and manipulations to seep in if you are not cautious. And you are doomed in that ignorance.

There are many responses you can see to the pandemic we all are collectively facing. Your response is a reflection of your true character, especially when it comes to solving and handling problems. Your character is at display here; your professional associates and your family are watching you.

A general attitude in difficult times is as follows:

#1 Fear & Victim Mindset.

You accept the problem and circumstance and accept your inability to do anything about it. You put your head down, wait for circumstance to change, wait for others to do something, and pray for a better future.

#2 You Propagate Confusion & Chaos

In your panic and distress, you stir others up with exaggerated emotions and sometimes twisted facts about how bad things are for you, and thus scaring others of the bad times in store for them, and making them wary around the future.

#3 Don’t worry. Make merry

You try to make the most of the time at hand by keeping yourself busy in entertainment, work, and hobbies while leaving the problem solving as someone else’s business.

People, as mentioned above, will wait for others to solve their problems. And if they can’t, they will eventually learn to compromise and live with it. Look, even if someone else solves the problem, or they compromise—They don’t grow. They don’t evolve. They don’t improve. And they don’t get better.

We have to stop pretending to be a victim and stop hosting fear in our minds and heart. Stop propagating confusion and chaos. And stop making merry and expect others to do the job of solving problems for us.

There is something you can do to solve the problem, any problem, including the problem of this pandemic, sitting at home in this lockdown. There is something you can do to support and help yourself and others out of this chaos.

And that begins with taking the first step— understand the problem.

You cannot solve a problem you do not fully understand. You need to first go to the core of the problem. Understand its nature, its functions, its anatomy, and its impact. Only then can you solve it.

Look at it this way; a doctor cannot treat you unless he can understand your problem and your symptoms, and does a correct diagnosis of your discomfort. That’s exactly how you solve any problem, including the pandemic we are fixed in.

Find answers to understand the problem of the coronavirus COVID-19. Ask the right questions. Media is not your source for medical answers. Find them in medical resources. Collect facts from authentic sources and resources.

Can you answer these questions of the problem that stands in your face every day, with full depth and knowledge? If you can’t do that, then you are a victim and a propagator of chaos, or worse, ignorant.

Test your macro understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic:

1. What is a virus?
2. How does it enter a human body?
3. How does it breach the immune system?
4. How does the virus function in the human body?
5. What is a mutation?
6. How does the body fight the virus?
7. What is the coronavirus?
8. How many categories and subcategories does the coronavirus have?

Test your understanding of the specific issue, the exact problem:

1. What is COVID-19?
2. What are the symptoms?
3. The anatomy of the danger it can cause?
4. Is your body resistant or vulnerable?
5. How can you prepare & protect yourself?
6. What is the conspiracy theory? Find the contradiction. There always is one.
7. Make up your mind about it.

In light of your findings and understanding—Define the problem.

If you can truly do so, you will begin to see the answers pop up. You will find something that you can do, even if that action starts with you alone. You will find enough confidence to spread knowledge and solutions. And your one act will inspire others to take collective action and solve it at a larger scale.

Any problem that comes your way don’t fear it, don’t run away. Stop. Inspect. Understand. Diagnose. Ask questions. Find facts. And lo behold, you will get the answers to solving them.

And if you don’t do that, trust me, someone else’s solution to your problem will not serve you, it will perhaps serve their agendas.

Now get to work and pull out facts and truth about this pandemic. You can do something about it. Do it before it is too late.

Rooting for your success,
Priya Kumar
Motivational Speaker | Author | Dreamer