Five Points to Appreciate During Lockdown

One month into community quarantine. During “busy season”, we would have been pre-occupied with our deliverables and the deadlines. This year’s busy season is different. It brought unhappiness to most of us. But, an experience also brings lessons which we can pick up. We can leverage this period to ponder things which would not cross our minds if this was a regular busy season.

---

Job security is really important.

While other companies consume unused leave credits to pay for employees during this lockdown, and some might have laid off workers, we are blessed to work flexibly and be paid accordingly. We are blessed to receive semi-monthly salary and cash assistance. We can combat professional stagnation because we can practice our profession even at home. When the lockdown is lifted, we are still employed with full benefits. Economic crisis is looming, and everybody is affected. In these uncertain times, it is good that we have chosen a company which also chooses us.

Balance is our goal.

Admit it—we all cursed at our jobs at one point in our life. Even non-accountants know the "busy season rants". If this was a normal busy season, we would have been crying in restrooms, gulping coffee, being irritated by the smallest Excel crash, muting our family chatgroups because they keep asking us when we will join family swimming, going home (dorm) late only to continue our overtime at home. We would have been praying for a little more sleep and peace of mind. Yet here we are, facing a lot more than “a little more”. Our biological clocks changed. Our everyday routine also changed. Our level of social interaction also changed. We are all confronted by a sudden change in lifestyle. We tell ourselves—when we rant, it is not because we hate our job or we want to give up. What we are searching for is balance. Everything excessive is not good nor enjoyable.

We can reengineer our budget.

This quarantine revealed the things we really "need" and the things we just "want". If we need coffee, supermarket coffee yields the same utility as barista coffee. Home-cooked food yields the same utility as restaurant food. Simple face treatments work well as expensive skin care products. We don’t really need to party every Friday night or payday. Two or three types of bags might be enough, and one of each type is enough. We bought a lot of things we really didn’t use, and we remember or notice them just recently. There are a lot of things we can live without, but because of our ability we just choose to have them. We might still crave for our old lifestyle. In the end, we pray our cravings will strengthen our appreciation to our resources and will enhance our judgment for utility and satisfaction. Also, when we redirect our resources to meaningful and charitable works, the impact of our resources is multiplied as they are reflected to the society.

Contingency fund is a must-have.

Some of us have attended a lot of seminars about financial literacy and personal savings, but still complain on not earning enough. Well, some of us have siblings to send to school and families to support, so some of us might really experience tight money. Yet, we are hoping that this experience will teach us first-hand the importance of savings and contingency fund. Despite having stable source of income, we are not really financially safe if we just rely on that. Also, despite having less things to spend on now, we never know when an extremely burdensome expense will hit us later. We are praying that, after this lockdown, everyone will commit to continuous saving and personal budget realignment. View life insurance as an investment or protection rather than additional burden. Eventually, our savings will grow and we can start investing in riskier ventures. Yet, our contingency fund must always be sufficient. The power of financial literacy and control is more valuable than just purchasing power. We have to be prepared at all times.

You are your most valuable asset.

Time will come when value of money will depreciate. Maybe not for this economic crisis, but inevitably our priorities will change and will shift to things other than being rich. Currently, we might have money, but there are a lot of things that we cannot buy. But, we have ourselves. Our lives do not revolve on just work and relationships with other people. We must not lose our relationship with ourselves. May this lockdown period highlight the importance of ourselves and repair the portions of our lives we have sacrificed as we grow older. May we renew our love for reading and writing, achieve a fit and healthy body, develop a new hobby, or fix our cluttered closets, review the things we are lacking and the things we are abundant of, reconnect with our families and friends (in person or through online), check on our spiritual well-being, or simply meditate and appreciate ourselves and our niche in the society.

---

There are a lot of thoughts running through everyone’s minds right now. Whatever those thoughts are, let us use them as fuel for a higher sense of purpose. We will triumph this trial. This trial will transform us. Let the transformation be for the better.