5 Life Lessons I’ve Learned during Lockdown in 2023

Yes, you read that correctly, I spent last year locked in a cage. You might not think you have much to learn from a small four-legged mammal, but boy, do I have news for you!

This Is Hay

In 2005, David Foster Wallace gave one of the most talked about commencement speeches of all time, “This is Water”. It begins with an anecdote:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’

The two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’

Think about it. You spend most of your day caught up with responsibilities, commitments, the never-ending stream of information that bombards us from all directions. This is our water.

It’s no wonder that people feel as though they are struggling just to keep afloat.

It’s easy to forget about other things. The important stuff. Living.

Most people say they don’t have enough energy to even spend ten minutes exercising; or meditate; or devote their full attention to a spouse or a friend. Don’t be one of those people.

Actively engage with your surroundings, make conscious choices about how you navigate through your daily existence.

Get off the wheel

You may think you know where this is going, but it has nothing to do with quitting your day job.

And I have a surprising fact for you. As a hamster in a cage, I have more freedom than you do.

There's a good chance that you travel on the same route to the same place every day, a place where someone tells you when you are allowed to eat, and when you are allowed to talk. Or, what time you need to appear on a zoom call, what you are supposed to talk about, and the way you are supposed to talk.

Not me, I can do those when I want.

So jump off whatever daily hamster wheel you are on and take a risk to be yourself once in a while.

And, if you are able, stop work 15 minutes earlier today, and try doing something new.

When You Feel You’re On the Outside Looking In, Take Action.

It's easy to feel like an observer. Watching others enjoy themselves as life passing you by. Trapped inside your self-imposed cage, by loneliness, or by anxiety, or depression, or by just distractions and laziness.

Take action and make something happen.

Take small risks, not big risks.

Last year, my coworker Cupcake went off the grid. He jumped out of the cage and hid under the sofa without food or water for days.

But once he had freedom, he didn’t know what to do with it. He couldn’t enjoy life without structure. Like a lottery winner with too many options, he just ran back and forth until life caught up with him. That is, the house cat Oreo.

Take small actions that improve yourself. Don’t wander aimlessly.

Don't bite the hand that loves you.

I bit the hand holding out a sunflower seed once. And learned my lesson. No more sunflower seeds.

There’s so much advice on Medium that says to search for your perfect soulmate, and never give up trying to find the world’s best partner, but in reality our choice is limited. For me, it was Cupcake, and now it's just Hammy.

Many of you look with envy at faraway, desirable people, while finding nothing but fault in the people close to you who care for you.

That also applies to your employer. No matter how much it might feel otherwise at times, they actually want you there.

Full disclosure: I work for Kaytee company. Their logo is all over my workplace.

You’ve got to know when to hold them.

The people who invented Poker were bored. It’s not recorded anyplace, yet I know this to be true. This game made life a lot more enjoyable in whatever dusty mining town they were stuck in, and today humans and hamsters enjoy the game just the same.

There are a lot of good things in your life that you probably haven’t thought about it in a while. Write a list of them to remind yourself.

Like the people who invented Poker did, make fun out of where you are at.

If you move somewhere else, be with someone else, or work someplace else, soon it will be the ‘same ole thing’ all over again.

But if you do take up yoga, for my sake, please don't do the downward dog, or the cobra pose, definitely don’t do the cobra pose.

🐹

* All photos from Unsplash.