Coronavirus Quarantine = Caterpillar Season

Remember the 1998 Pixar movie A Bug’s Life? Remember the character Heimlich? He’s the German caterpillar who longs to become a “boootiful butterfly!” He’s also my personal mascot during this pandemic. All Heimlich does is eat. Heimlich eats candy corn, pie…everything. However, as a caterpillar, Heimlich needs to eat in order to grow and achieve his butterfly goal! Therefore, I’m rebranding this coronavirus quarantine to “caterpillar season”. Is this an excuse to eat candy corn and pie all day? No!…um…maybe! Caterpillar season is centered around personal growth.

6-weeks ago my daily routine life flipped-turned upside-down:

• No bike-commuting to work
• No weightlifting at Illumina gym
• No lunchtime meal-prepping

Suddenly, my routine was gone. My daily habits are apart of who I am. My fitness rings screamed “you’re lazy!” I struggled for two weeks figuring out how to stay active, healthy, and productive in the new work-from-home environment. I had to make lemonade from lemons.

My roommate first mentioned starting new goals during quarantine. I loved the idea! His goals are to read 2 books, learn 3 songs on mandolin, and complete 4 projects at home before the end of quarantine. Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely. SMART! I wish him well, I’m certain he will be successful! I know that if I set similar goals, I will be unsuccessful. Here’s why: Goals focus on end results and fail to stir positive energy towards progress. To put it another way, goal-setting lacks a system².

“A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal. If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent pre-success failure. All I’m suggesting is that thinking of goals and systems as very different concepts has power. Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre-success failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.” – How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams; creator of Dilbert comic strip.

I lost my favorite routines to the coronavirus quarantine, but now it’s caterpillar season. I chose to leverage my goals to create a new daily system. First, I collected my goals:

1. Beach-season ready: Get six-pack abs
2. Finish all the books in my apartment (the public library is closed) and keep up with current business news
3. Sleep at least 7 hours a night
4. Potentially train for a marathon? (this is admittedly an unspecific goal)
5. Spend less time making lunch and dinner (again, not a specific goal)
6. Stay in touch with family and friends
7. Write a blogpost, start a new hobby, and finish a project each month

Second, for every goal I asked myself “what’s the immediate next step?” The answer brought me to a specific and measurable task. Third, to make the tasks actionable and realistic, I categorized tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly buckets. Finally, I had created new routines and systems to keep me accountable! I currently keep track of my systems with a tally mark, or a weekly total. See how I set up my “Corona Goals – ‘System’” below:

Today marks one month since beginning my system. I find that accountability is incredibly important! That’s why I’m sharing this on my blog. Also, evidently, this post counts towards my monthly goal. Now, some considerations with my system. Shouldn’t I have “draft a blog post for 15 minutes” as a daily task? In response, I am purposefully employing positive procrastination to help me finish a monthly post. I have many topics to write on. I see it as a matter of accountability meets execution.³

Looking to Heimlich and striving to become a “boootiful butterfly” has helped me set new goals, create a system, and reset my daily habits. I chose to rebrand this coronavirus quarantine as caterpillar season. Thanks for reading! I don’t intend on this post to cause any self-reflection crises. Please be mindful on what is managable during this wild time. Some closing food for thought:

“The chart below is a decent framework for helping yourself and others. Isolation fosters introspection. If the growth zone is too far off right now, or if you’re struggling with mental health or addiction issues, then just getting through the day is good enough during a pandemic.” – Scott Galloway⁴

¹ Font credit; Picture credit.
² Scott Adams discussed goals vs systems on a 2018 Masters In Business podcast episode.
³ Moreover, the process of drafting a blog post is very calming to me. I write to collect my thoughts.
⁴ Professor Scott Galloway’s blog is a mind-bending weekly read. This graphic came from this post.