As the long month of April slowly gives way to what could be the long month of May, I’ve been assessing how things are going in my local business economies. I hear people asking, “How long can we keep doing this?” Then we look at our parents and our children and we think to ourselves (if we don’t say it out loud), “What else can we do?” Here are some thoughts about “this moment.”

When You Find That Author Who Speaks Your Credo

I stumbled upon the author Ryan Holiday a few years ago, and I’m glad that I did. I’ve read his books and I enjoy his applications of classic Stoic philosophy for today’s world. Here is a quote from Holiday that I want to offer for our current crisis:

“Remember that this moment is not your life, it’s just a moment in your life. Focus on what is in front of you, right now. Ignore what it “represents” or it “means” or “why it happened to you.”

― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage

Maybe in the future there will be time to think back on the “whys’ of this global pandemic, but for now, I can only focus on being one of the survivors. I decided to use my time and my energy looking for ways to keep moving forward, and if I can’t move forward, I look for ways to stay active while in place. What else can we do?

Choose How You Spend This Time

Ryan Holiday likes to point out that there are two kinds of time: alive time and dead time. Think of the phrase “killing time.” I do believe that some downtime is necessary, but we have all had those hours of killing time with mindless TV, or aimless scrolling through phones, or even just the time spent thinking how bored we are at the moment. Alive time is when we can remember some of “all those things” we wished we had time to do, before the coronavirus shutdown, and then doing them. Alive time can be giving service to your community and to those in need. It can be developing some action steps you can take with your business, even if it is a day-by-day-just-get-through-this-next-week list. Like everyone else right now, I’m operating in stormy and uncharted waters. I want my business to make it through the storm and find a safe harbor to first regroup and then thrive.

I believe that each of us has these same instincts, even if we think of them in different terms. There is a survival path for you, and I want to believe there is one for your business as well. I will help you look if you need to bounce ideas off someone. Give Aptica a call and we can discuss your plans and concerns.

Jason Newburg, 260.243.5100, ext 2101, is the founder and owner of Aptica LLC. This IT management and support company has been serving small to medium-sized businesses for 19 years in the region that includes Angola, South Bend, and Fort Wayne, IN, Battle Creek, MI, and Toledo OH.