Why does it always take a big shake-up in life to get our attention?

We often go through life on auto-pilot, making decisions and taking actions that we think will give us the life we want. Over time we get so caught up in our routine, that we don’t even think about what our priorities are anymore. We wake up, go to the work we chose, often wishing it were Saturday. Once the day gets going, things might be fine, but how inspired and motivated are we, really?

We try. We use the New Year, whether that’s in January or in August when schools go back. We use the change of seasons. We create whatever line in the sand we can, but does it ever really work?

I know it can work. We can evaluate and shift our priorities based on these self-imposed landmarks, but I’m not sure it comes from a fire igniting within ourselves. Instead, we push for what we think we should want, basically “should-ing on ourselves.” (Read that last sentence out loud if you don’t get it. Wink-wink.)

The best way to get in touch with our priorities is to experience a crisis.

I’ve noticed an interesting trend with the current events. In March, when Coronavirus seemed to take over our lives, everyone shut down. Naturally, we panicked and worried about what the extreme closures would do to our lives. As we shut down our businesses, avoided our daily rituals, and stopped everything, we all hunkered down at home.

What were we to do with all this time?

People started doing puzzles with their kids, watching Tiger King, and finding distractions to keep busy. Life felt surreal and scary, and actually… now that I think about it… kind of fun. After a while, we adapted. We tried to push our worries aside to get through this surreal experience, and we tried to find some positivity in this harrowing reality.

Some aspects of it weren’t so bad for many of us.

Being with family, finding the time to cook and exercise, and tackling those home projects we could never complete while working, showed us an alternate reality. We got the chance to see a different way of life. We were given the opportunity to experience life without the stresses that come along with work as we knew it.

And I bet you liked it.

You liked it enough to start reflecting on your priorities in life. That’s what shake-ups do to us: they make us reflect. With a chance to slow down, you may have confirmed just how unhappy you really are at work. Maybe you were able to experience how spending less money felt okay. You saw with your own eyes that you could survive with less, so earning less might be a possibility. You got the chance to see how those golden handcuffs might not have to have such a hold on you. Maybe you experienced sleeping soundly through the night for the first time in years. You realized you don’t miss all the stress your old lifestyle created for you.

And when it came time to go back to work, the anxiety crept in worse than ever.

The stress and anxiety you feel about going back to work could be telling you something.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I hoped it would be an eye-opener for those around me. In a way I was lucky that I had already abandoned what was wrong in my life before my diagnosis. Since I thought I couldn’t use it to change my life, I wanted someone, anyone, to benefit from it. I hoped my crisis would give others the inspiration to re-think their priorities and create dreams to chase.

But it doesn’t work that way.

We need to experience challenges ourselves in order to get that perspective, in order to feel that desire in our heart. It’s the perspective that we only have one life to live, and we don’t know when it will be taken from us, so we better live for today.

After experiencing an illness, witnessing the suffering of a loved one, or after a major loss, people re-think their lives. They start to reflect on what they really want, and they vow to go after it.

This pandemic seems to fit that bill.

If you’re feeling relieved and excited to go back to work, that’s great. That is telling. However, if you are dreading it within the depths of your soul, or if it is creating massive stress and anxiety, then that is telling too.

You’ve had a taste of how life could be. You’ve seen that you’ve been sacrificing a whole lot to have what you thought was important. Maybe now, you’re questioning if it’s worth it. You might be wondering how you could create more of what you want. But the fear and the responsibilities still creep back in.

How can you keep that fire within burning? How can you let this latest crisis open your eyes and shift your priorities, so that you can create more of what you do want and less of what you don’t want?

I bet there is one thing you’ve learned about yourself in this crisis. Take that forward and let it remind you what your life can be.