3 Important Life Lessons Quarantine Teaches You

Before 2020, when you heard the word quarantine you may have not thought too much of it. You would have seen it as just a small amount of time that would limit your activities. Maybe due to an illness, you may have experienced it yourself already. However, 2020 gave a whole new meaning to the word quarantine because the entire world was experiencing it in some may. Although not easy and something we do not want to regularly experience, there are life lessons quarantine teaches you.

Some of life’s best lessons are learned the hard way. For me, the lessons learned in 2020 were definitely not easy. The Pandemic forced us all to slow down, look around, and spend a lot of time with ourselves. During times like this, you have two main choices.

You can focus on what was and get stuck looking in the rearview mirror of your life. Which I did for the first few months of quarantine if I am honest. Or you can focus on what God is doing and what lessons you are supposed to learn from it.

Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.
Proverbs 18:15 (MSG)

Those lessons help to shape who you are as a person and who you want to become. There are so many lessons that can be learned and there are 3 significant life lessons quarantine taught us.

1) A Life Lesson Quarantine Teaches You Is Less Is More

In a culture that promotes more is better, you can find yourself striving to do, see, achieve, and have more. Whether that is possessions, accomplishments, followers, and the list could go on and on. Yet, quarantine forced so many to slow down, stop doing, stop going, and stop trying to attain more.

The life lesson quarantine taught during this slow down was that less is more. While no longer focusing on getting more, you also gain an attitude of gratitude. Grateful and thankful for the things you have and the people in your life. Helping you to focus not on striving to gain more, but to appreciate and value what you already have.

I can remember at the beginning of the year, my husband, Eric, and I were thinking about buying a bigger house. We thought the house and the space we have was just not enough. So we started to make a list of all the things we would have to do to get our house ready for the market, took an honest look at our finances, got pre-approved for a mortgage, and then started house hunting.

We were serious, yet because of Covid and us all being home together. We had to take an honest look at our home and our life. Then discovered we had more than enough, both in our home and in the neighborhood we live in. We did not need a bigger space on a new street. We needed to value the space and the neighbors we had. This inspired us to start working on updates in our home and now we love it.

You are blessed and have so much. Sometimes it takes something or someone else to open your eyes to what you have and for you to truly realize that less is more. One of the powerful life lessons quarantine teaches you.

2) ‘What Are Your Priorities?’ Is Another Lesson

In the busyness of life, it is so easy to get focused on only the things in front of you that you do not take the time to prioritize all of the things before you. Prioritizing your time, energy, and resources is so important and definitely a life lesson quarantine teaches you.

You only have so much time and resources, whether money, space, or opportunities. Deciding on how, if, and when to use those is something that you have to do based on what your priorities are. Just because you can do something does not mean you should.

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (NLT)

Prioritizing the different things in your life is key to being your best, doing what is best, and achieving your goals. Not just for yourself, but also for your marriage and your family. Making prioritization another one of the life-changing life lessons quarantine teaches you.

3) Life Lesson Quarantine Teaches You Is Pivoting Is Ok And Often Necessary

Now if there is one word that could describe 2020, it would be the year of the pivot. So many things about our lives, how we lived, and how we needed to move forward had to change. What you may have wanted to do or planned to do either had to be put on hold or totally disappeared. Forcing you to make one of those two choices I mentioned earlier.

You either have to focus on what was and get stuck looking in the rearview mirror of your life. Or you can focus on what God is doing, what lessons you are supposed to learn from it, and adjust or pivot accordingly.

Pivoting encompasses the other two life lessons as well. While in quarantine you realize less is more. So you look at what you can do with what you already have in your hands. Then you start prioritizing to use your less to help you pivot into more.

Pivoting is often very necessary for you to go from where you are to where you want to be. Whether that is into a better and more fulfilling relationship with God and others. Or pivoting into a new season of life or opportunity.

I know I made a huge pivot while in quarantine. By taking the blog that I loved and had been successful with into a new direction. I wanted to be able to help you in more intentional and impactful ways. So I looked at what I had already built, invested in myself, reprioritized my focus, and pivoted by creating Beyond Committed. You can read all about it and all that Beyond Committed has to offer here.

Pivoting is not easy and can often be a little scary. It involves change and comes with uncertainty. Yet with a leap, you cannot fly. So do not look at pivoting as losing what was, but as an opportunity for you to gain something new.

Being in quarantine was definitely not easy. It required so much to change and came with uncertainty all around. Yet in the midst of it all, God was still at work and there are so many significant life lessons that can be learned. Three significant ones are:

• Less is really more
• Prioritization is key
• Pivoting is not just ok, but at times necessary

I’d love to know what other life lesson quarantine taught you in the comments!