“Life takes you down many paths, but my favorite one leads to the beach.” – Anonymous
Welcome to The Vibe!
The blog that tries to make this quarantine more bearable in 500 words or less.
Each week we discuss ONE IDEA that will help you live a better life.
This week’s topic is how to FIND YOUR BEACH in the middle of a plague.
Good vibes only…
The Vibe: Find Your Beach
It’s starting to feel like we’re stuck in the middle of an endless snow day.
But we can’t play with our friends because the snow is contagious.
Spring Break felt more like 1918 than 2020.
We were putting on face masks instead of SPF.
The last few weeks have been like no other.
Stuck at home with no clear end in sight.
We could all use a long walk on a sunny beach.
Unfortunately BEACHES and PANDEMICS don’t play well together.
With no beach time in sight for the foreseeable future, we are forced to get creative.
It’s like we’re in a real life Corona beer commercial – just trying to FIND OUR BEACH.
Maybe we could use a few extra moments to ourselves each day.
Or perhaps we’re looking for a better way to spend the crazy amount of family time we have now.
Here are 3.5 ways to FIND YOUR BEACH:
1) Get Combative
If you had to pick an activity the CDC would ban during an outbreak, it’s hard to beat Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Plagues mean no Jiu jitsu class.
You don’t realize how much you miss getting choked semi-conscious by your friends until you can’t do it anymore.
But as one door closes, another opens.
After years of talking about it, my son and I started training BJJ on the mats in our basement.
Family bonding (and rear naked chokes) at its best.
We have only one rule.
He is NOT allowed to submit me for at least the first year.
2) Go Back To The Future
This lockdown has given us the chance to introduce our kids to the shows we loved back in the day.
One of them is “Band of Brothers”.
My all time favorite mini-series.
Based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s incredible book, it follows the members of Easy Company 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division from basic training, D-Day, and through some of the fiercest battles of WWII in Europe.
My wife and I watched this series during the Fall of 2001 in our apartment in Philly.
The series helped get our minds off of the chaos following 9/11.
Nineteen years later we are watching it again with our kids trying to get our minds off a plague.
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
3) Be Like Churchill
During the Nazi Blitzkrieg, Winston Churchill started off his day reading to calm his mind.
Churchill said, “It has been a comfort to me in these anxious days to put a thousand years between my thoughts and the twentieth century.”
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Reading just 20 minutes from an amazing book can bring a flash of insight that will help us be WISER and CALMER.
Looking for a great book?
Ryan Holiday puts out a killer monthly book list.
3.5) Up Before The Enemy
Jocko WIllink says we have to be “Up Before the Enemy.”
The “enemy” in this case is the rest of our house.
There is nothing like the early morning.
Getting up early creates space between you and the day ahead.
The time is all yours.
You are at your most creative.
At first, getting up early sucks, then once you create the HABIT you’ll never go back.
Own the morning, own the day.
These last few weeks were rough.
Our families, especially our kids, need the best version of us to show up each day.
So spend some time on your favorite beach today.
Even if it’s only in your mind.
Surfs up…
#FindYourBeach
Joe Ciccarone
The Vibe 