The landscape of day-to-day life has changed and it appears more change will come before life retreats back to convention. For small business and brand owners, like ourselves, we have been presented with a hurdle and some opportunity. We have been tasked with the ability to adapt. Though our primary task is curbing corna our equally important one is how do we stay relevant and viable during this time of limitation and constraint. Fortunately for us, we enjoy these challenges but the harsh reality is that life will change for a number of entrepreneurs when the dust settles in all of this. So I will go on a tangent and say support local business during this time if and when you can. Amazon is great. I use it regularly. But I don’t when I have the opportunity to put those dollars into my immediate community. I encourage you to do the same.

I also encourage you to capitalize on this opportunity when it comes to time.

Over the last week or so we, in North America, have ventured out into a bit of an unknown daze. Life that was once routine has become uncharted territory. The home office, spare bedroom, kitchen island or rarely used basement corner has become our new anti-social work place. Our new focus is the practice of social distancing and review of community mitigation strategies. We have canceled first dates, weekly dinner parties and morning gym sessions in the name of slowing the spread – a very important practice to ensure we limit the spread of COVID-19. Not just as a practice for self but for other’s who might not have the same health luxuries that we might. We all need to buy into this if we can get back to life as we knew it.

The new daily challenges for us are how to stay healthy and active, connected, entertained and creative within our four walls. Most of us aren’t use to this self isolation and free time. We have long found comfort in packing our lives from sunrise to sunset. For some of us, we are still conducting business as usual form our home, others will find themselves with an abundance of free time. Whether you are just saving the time of the morning and evening rush hour commute or find yourself with 8 hours at your disposal – we have been presented with the opportunity of uninterrupted time and an opportunity for self.

For everyone this opportunity will look different, but at the core, it is very rare opportunity for personal fulfillment. A window of time where we can dust off that nightstand notepad with a growing list of personal resolutions or re-visit that long forgotten project. Maybe jotted down was a desire to write a business plan, apply for funding or enroll in an online course and learn a new skill. A desire to write more, read more, play more. To pick-up that camera you got for Christmas or that guitar that has been collecting dust under your bed. Maybe it was for some much needed mental or physical self care (which is probably something we all should be scheduling in). Or maybe it is as simple as building that LinkedIn page to network and reasses a career goal.

If any of that resonates. I am happy for you. Now it is just about getting started and breaking ground on your new found opportunity. I encourage you to refrain from procrastination or worse to just shutter into decreased productivity. That Netflix binge or IG catch-up can, and most likely will, quickly send you down a mindless worm hole and eat into this valuable time allotment we have been granted.

Netflix will still be there when the dust settles.

This time, won’t.