With our country experiencing recession and having recently had a sovereign credit rating downgrade to subinvestment (junk) grade, the covid-19 induced lockdown will mean more economic woes for many SMMEs and ordinary people alike. Many already struggle to adjust to a new routine of staying put with limited contact with the outside world, and some are facing job-losses after the lockdown. And with our public-health facilities already taking strain, depression will be on the rise. It’s normal for many to feel helpless, demotivated and discouraged, while some, in the same vein, resorting to pursuing quick “feel-good” solutions that may be ruinous in the long run if not carefully managed. We need to be alert and watchful against becoming sidetracked and ignoring the importance of using this lockdown period to face and tackle our challenges head on so we can emerge stronger afterwards. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 March 2020.

The president initially declared twenty-one days (just over a couple of weeks) as the period for the total lockdown. It seems the period may be extended to several weeks. This clearly would compound our challenges and our country has limited resources and capacity to resolve the effects of such prolonged lockdown. Some large companies are reportedly pleading with suppliers and creditors to expect postponed repayments. Liquidation of some companies is already under way. Life is bound to be different for some extended period to come.

The danger we now face is failure to heed warnings of hardships before us. Understandably, many are not purposely ignoring such dangers, but are grieving from their current pain. If we know such people, we should be more empathetic while doing our best to encourage them, not just in and with words, but our time, effort and perhaps resources to help them rebuild their lives.

The african proverb, “Indoda Ayikhali” or more generally the adage, “Tigers don’t cry” may be deemed misogynistic, but notwithstanding the need to acknowledge pain, it seeks to encourage the aggrieved to look beyond their suffering to face and tackle problems head-on. Crying, not only gives one an outlet to let off pain, but enables and forces us to acknowledge our suffering. It’s in that acknowledgement that we can begin to want to do something worthwhile about it. We won’t be eager to resolve a problem we have not yet acknowledged. While I’m caught between expressing pain through crying, I’m also in favour of the “tigers don’t cry” encouragement call, mainly from wanting to exploit the benefits of either call.

Many wrong decisions have been made by people responding emotionally. Decisions made under pressure are often irrational, as they are made from fear, mainly of some loss. Crying invokes emotions and when we dwell too much into them, we will fail to observe opportunities and avenues of overcoming our challenges. Sometimes opportunities and insights are time-sensitive. It’s important we pay attention to good thoughts we may have, whether out of meditation, or solemn moments and it is advisable we keep a notebook or equivalent nearby, to record those good thoughts when they come. Such insights tend to flow one after the other. If one fails to record or chooses to “interrupt” those thoughts by doing something else or postponing recording them, the momentum of the flow of ideas may not be regained.

One can appreciate the benefits of forcing oneself to focus on ways of overcoming one’s problem than dwelling on one’s woes. Woes may even prolong one’s “grieving” period and ultimately one’s enjoyment of peace from the speedy resolution of one’s problems.

It’s easy to be distracted and emotions aroused during this lockdown. Not a day goes by without receiving or accessing a flurry of entertaining or conspiratorial messages and audio-visual clips. If we are not careful, we may complete the entire lockdown and possibly its extended period without anything worthwhile to show for it.

We need to balance our time appropriately to ensure we also attend to activities we did not have sufficient time to work on before the lockdown. We may feel the moment is inappropriate to work on them now, but nothing worthy has ever been fun or easy or at the right time to start. We need to find courage to start using our time productively for our greater benefit afterwards.

Entrepreneurs should heed this call more than anything. They may not feel there isn’t anything meaningful they could do in this lockdown, but with good introspection, they may find something. Resting, is another important consideration to make for our well-being provided we know other important activities we may need to attend to, to lessen our pain after the lockdown.

Let us not be quick to ignore our problems by becoming “busy-bodies”, as time does not always solve all problems. Let us not be hasty either, for, we will work ourselves up and may be victims of burnout even when we could rest during the lockdown.

In a nutshell, we need to maintain balance and profit from the time available to us. There’s no better time than in this lockdown.

Wishing you strength, hope and courage in these trying times.