The mindset that got me through redundancy and lockdown

2020 was supposed to be Rebekah Craig's big year—then COVID hit, but the TCI consultant and student bounced back with these mindset strategies.

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Everyone is hurting right now, everyone has their own COVID-19 story to tell, and here's mine, about the mindset that got me through redundancy and lockdown.

2020 was supposed to be amazing.

I had plans to travel and level-up my finances and career. It was supposed to be the year of me being 30, flirty, and thriving. But instead of 13 Going on 30, it more closely resembled Finding Nemo—you know, the part where Bruce forgets "fish are friends, not food," and chases Nemo around a shipwreck trying to eat him. (I'm Nemo in this analogy.)

My snapshot:

Faced the first redundancy of my career from a company I absolutely loved.
Was declined for over 25 temp jobs because I was 'overqualified'....
Level three COVID-19 lockdown. Entered isolation while living alone in Melbourne. Sweet as.
Found a full-time temp gig that started running out of work after eight weeks. Fun.

All this happened within two months. Within two months, I lost 60 per cent of my income. As a non-resident/citizen I was ineligible for government support. I was in Australia alone, with no family to fall back on.

I should have been twisted with worry and anxiety like a hot pretzel.

But I wasn't.

While all around me, friends, peers, and social media were talking about how hard life was in isolation, I was EXCITED to see how I would thrive in this unknown territory.

This is the mindset that got me through redundancy and lockdown:

I CONTROL MY EXPERIENCE

When I was 11, I picked up Nelson Mandela's biography Long Walk to Freedom. I definitely did not make it all the way through, but I remember reading a few pages of his life and the hardships he went through, and then looking at the size of that fat-as book.

In that moment, my 11-year-old self decided to forever view every hardship and trial as another way to level-up my greatness, so that one day a book that fat will be written about me. Since then, my belief is that I will thrive in any situation, despite what 'reality' might look like because I control my experience.

MY PEACE IS MY PRIORITY

No money, job, relationship, expectation, travel plans, coffee dates, missed funerals, house, lifestyle ... nothing, and I mean nothing, is worth losing my peace.

That inner peace is priceless. And it can be vulnerable. Guard it fiercely and honour it by making it your number one priority.

EMBRACE THE MAGIC OF THE 45-SECOND BURN

Fitness freaks will be familiar with interval training. We all know that the 'gains' are made and tested in those 45 seconds of absolute crap, and the 15 seconds of rest are there to prepare us for the next 45 seconds of absolute crap.

Can you tell I hate working out? Well, life is one never-ending interval training session. I am learning to stop hanging onto the 15 seconds of rest, never wanting it to end, and embrace the 45 seconds of bullshit that brings out my magic—or abs!

LET GO OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

If I’m too focused on what I had, I’ll miss what I’m getting. I’ve learnt that grasping onto my comfort zone meant that I missed all the beautiful possibilities of hanging out in the unknown.

As I get older, the more loosely I hold onto my plans, and the more tightly I hold on to my childlike wonder.

So whether you're alone in the country, or in a house full of riotous kids, whether you've lost your dream job or took a 20 per cent hit to your income, whatever your reality, you have the capacity to lean into the discomfort.

You have the power to decide that nothing is going to stop you from experiencing life the way you want it.

As for me, 2020 has been epic and when that milestone rolls around in August, you can bet your tail that—because of the mindset that got me through redundancy and lockdown—I'll be 30, flirty, and THRIVING!