I read a Twitter feed posting from someone who was now working on their post-covid audit of his life, and he was looking to change some stuff up.

Half of me was saying good on your mate. There is always room for continual improvement. There is always time for reflection, and with some deep thought, you can deliver some real change for yourself and the others in your life.

The other half of me was screaming, feck sake, half of the world is still dealing with this shit and so have some mercy of thought and don’t be so bloody cocky because there is a sting in this virus yet.

I am no doctor, and I have no medical training on viruses or any other infectious diseases. But I have seen a shit ton of movies, and I think we are entering into the end of act two.

That bit where you think you have killed the baddy, and he bounds out from the background, looking like Boris fecking Johnson on a good day, and he is brandishing a 12-inch blade screaming for some quick revenge.

It is payback time… 

I am not even putting myself into that situation. You know, where the killer gets one last chance to take someone out before they are finally nailed by a shotgun to the head that unmistakably ‘make sure he is all dead scene.’

I always had empathy for that person in the movie that was last to get done in. The person who displays the widest triumphant grin, shinny white teeth and all, only to descend into a glacial stare for the camera as he coughs out a mouthful of blood. 

Don’t be that guy, the guy who is the mainstay of any decent disaster movie. Don’t be the guy coughing blood up and mouthing the word feck no! Aye, that guy, don’t be that guy. Don’t let the other people in your daily life pressure you into being that daft b*st*rd. Protect yourself until the coast is clear, even if it means wearing a mask on the odd occasion. You know, like when travelling in a packed London Underground, like!

On the other hand, be the guy with the post-pandemic audit. Be that guy. Plan like that fecker. I said plan because it is not over yet.

Plan out what you want to do when it is all finally under control, and the risk has been minimised, you know, like the end scene of The Rock – missiles landed and threat destroyed. That kind of under control. Plan for that moment.

While you plan for that moment, it is normal for you to look glumly from your window and feel like a punchbag… with ‘life isn’t fair’ and all that other commentary running through your head. You can feel down about it; it has not been the best of times to grow through.

But don’t stay in that place too long. It is crap being in that negative space. Try like hell to get yourself out of it. Connect with people who will make you feel good about yourself and switch your mood as a team. Plan the future and get ready for that summer bunnet, the winter ski suit or the flowery autumn jumper… order in the summer shorts and wear them around the house now. Get out in the back garden and get air around them there legs of yours, and do some stuff that will keep you going in the short term. That will lift the mood. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and all that!!

Long term – plan that like a man possessed. This is your chance. I read that more than forty percent of the service industry workers in America are not going back to their jobs. I say give it time; most will be back because when push comes to shove – many people don’t push.! Saying is one thing, doing is the other.

There are genuine reasons for embracing that comfort, and many are financial, and that’s cool. I’ve been there. Grafting just to survive or enjoying the safety net of familiarity. I did that for many a year and will continue to do so, but I am planning for some future change, and it is going almost to what I suspected it would…

The pandemic has set it back a bit, ok, but that is manageable; as long as I don’t lose my life to covid, then it should all work out in the end.

I will review my old plan now because I like the idea of generating a post-pandemic audit. A readiness check for a post-pandemic world is a more apt phrase that is in my mind.

I am going to refine my plan. It makes sense to do that now. Things have undoubtedly shifted over the last couple of years. I think I will go bigger, be bolder and work to get over my own personal fears in a better way. Trust me. There are many, including being that last guy made dead at the end of the movie…

I am throwing caution to the wind. Why not have a go yourself.

Try something different, go forward with it in a more destructive productive way.

Because you only experience this life this one time, and this is now your time.

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As a footnote on another subject: do you know how to ruin a great coffee shop… you employ a nutter that thinks banging the coffee out of the machine is his sole mission from god so does it with some passion that the noise is frigging deafening. Time to find a new place to reflect because this place has went from brilliant to awful! Sad, because I liked this place.