Apr 3, 2020
Introducing Corona Virus and Self Isolation
Welcome to today's episode of the Join Up Dots podcast. As you will be aware unless you live on Mars or you haven't climbed out of your bed yet, the world is dealing with a horrific situation. The corona virus is raging across the world, ripping apart families, leaving many many deaths in its wake, and changing the way we live altogether. There is no getting away with the fact that for most of us, we have never seen anything like this before. But what can we do to help ourselves, and make the self isolation and enjoyable period of our lives? The time when we focus or energies on breaking free from the rat race, and simply "start smelling the roses" Well in todays epsisode of Join Up Dots, your host David Ralph shares his rules for getting through the corona virus pandemic. He also invites the world to connect with him and share how life is in your home, and the good news that you have found to inspire us all. Thanks for listening as always Return To The Top Of Corona virus If you enjoyed this episode with Coronavirus, why not check out other inspirational chat with Clayton Morris, Dorie Clark, and the amazing Niall Doherty You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here– enjoy Full Transcription Of Corona Virus Episode Intro 0:00 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. David Ralph 0:25 Yes, hello there. Good morning world. Good morning and welcome to Join Up Dots. This is David Ralph. This is David Ralph. The host. Some people say the sexy host. To be honest, most of the time it's me but says but but i i believe i believe it. I'm going to be 50 I'm gonna be 50 this month, sometime this month. I'm gonna be 50 years old, and Casa coronavirus. We're in lockdown. And so me and my wife. We're doing that kind of thing where we're starting to get out and walk together and I keep on meeting people. From the other side of the road, because you can't get too close at the moment, you got to do your social distancing. And so you see people and you're walking along and you think, Oh my god, there's somebody on the same side of the road as me, what should I do? And then you think I go to the other side of the road, but of course, I had that same thought as well. And so you get this moment of thinking, do it. Do I just sprint past? Do I, what do I do? What do I do? Well, I've spent most of my time saying to my wife, I think I went to school with that person. Because, you know, walking around the streets of my town, most people grew up in the same place. And he was he was in my class, my God. Oh, my God, look at him. Look at him compared to me, you know, you're lucky lady. You're lucky and she says, Yeah, Oh, I know. You're so much younger looking men here. Margot. Look Merck. I've got ABS I've got I haven't really, I haven't got it. But anyway, so coronavirus. It has been it's been a rough time, isn't it? And it's really it's been the strangest time that I've ever known. Certainly, we hear stories about June war when although we weren't always in the war and stuff, and most of us can't even comprehend it. But I think this is the closest. And hopefully all of you out there are safe and healthy, and just sort of getting home with life. And once again, I'd like to say to people, so many thank yous for dropping me a line still, because it's about my mom, my mom mom has had a stroke back at February and we're still in the situation now she's um, I bring you up to speed and I do apologise if my voice cracks because it's very, very well. But um, she got discharged out of hospital she shouldn't have done but they're freeing up Bates, because of the corona situation. And so she's at home now and we can't really get round bear to be with him. I am going round bear because my dad is struggling, because it's just him and his her. And as anyone knows when some loved one has been a or when not themselves, and certain bodily functions and stuff is not under control and just her her mindset. She's She's become really, really Moody, really miserable and so emotional and I spent the day with her the other day to give my dad a break. And I've never seen anyone cry in such a primitive way. Well, you know, most people will cry and get over it. This This was like, ripping her apart. And I held her hand and she she was just saying, I want to die. I want to die. I'm letting everybody down and stuff. It was it was dreadful. It was dreadful. And so, yeah, so thank you to everybody. We're getting through it. Little by little, I try to say to her, look, you're not going to get better. You are not going to get better. If you've got that mindset. You know. You got to get your head into the game, ma'am. And she'll say to me, yeah, but it's easy for you to say and I say yeah, is easy for me to say. But I can give you a list of 1000 people but at least Really, you know, no arms, no legs, they they're just an air and they're dragging themselves up the top of Kingdom and Java. It's all mindset. It's all mindset and its focus. And so hopefully, the penny will drop and share realise about you when you're in a game and you're when you're out again. So that's where we are at the moment. But I'm rough all times in the Ralph household. By way from that way from that one of the things that people are talking about all the time is zoom, and zoom is video meeting. I mean, it's brilliant. I use it for my business all the time. Anyone who's connected with me will know that we connect on zoom, I can see you You can see us and video calling is great, but I want it to just talk about something but add on to zoom, which is really important. And my mom and dad by are in our 80s and I thought right what I do, I get them set up on zoom, so that they can just look at it and click on it and then connect with people around the world that they love. And it was 200 For them to use. So I decided that I would do Facebook Messenger really, really simple. And people can type a message they can see it. But even that was too difficult. And I'd say, well, I've set it up on the link at the top in the toolbar, all you got to do dad is turn on your computer, and click on that link, and then find the person that you want to speak to. Okay, so all I do is I click on that link, and then how do I find somebody right? You go into that little box there, and you just type the name and all the lists are coming up. Now you would think that that was really easy, but because of the situation they're going through, and, and their sort of mindset as well, it was, it's too much for them. So I'm really riemeck recommend people googling Chrome Remote Desktop, which is a Chrome app, which means that you can gain authority to log on to your parents, or your loved ones PCs. So now I can say to them Don't worry, I'll log on to your machine, just turn it on. And I can do that I can plug it in and turn it on. And then I will link it up and I will connect with you, I will make a call from your system to mine, or vice versa. And we found that's a great win. So if you are struggling to keeping connection with people, there is a thing step by step, Chrome Remote Desktop. You can go over there you can look at it. There are a simple steps that you can go through with your loved ones. My dad managed it so most people can as he always says, How would a normal person do this? How would a normal person that sees big thing, but it means now that we've got that ability even if they turn the computer off of I haven't got the right browser up whatever. We can then connect with them and it's been a game changer. So I thought to myself I thought to myself on this episode, I would just not talk about the bad times of Corona because I think a lot of blue Just coming out of service, I think people are becoming more grateful for their freedom. I think they're becoming more grateful for the personal connections that I had. And we were probably taking for granted, where we would send a text message and think that's good enough. I think people are realising that there's a new way of operating and I think it's the welds reset button. I think what we're going through at the moment, is the ability for us to come out at the other end and say, there's a different way of operating, the pollution is going down and down and down, which is brilliant. work life balance. It's got to be better after this, where companies have realised but even vo employee asked for this for years and years and years, can I work from home on a Friday can No, you're gonna be at your desk, but there is a different way of operating. So I think there's gonna be so many positives that come out of this. It's going to be brilliant. But these are my little rules, these little rules. And these are the things that I've been doing to keep motivated because I must admit, podcasting is the least of my interest at the moment where this is a rarity, but I'm doing a solo show. I've been doing guest shows because people are booked in and I've got to kind of force myself to do it. But your motivation does go. And especially when you've got things going on in your life, which seemed more important than your business, then it's very easy to can't be bothered, I can't be bothered. So this is what I'm doing. And I thought it might be useful for some people out there. I set my clock every morning. I'm getting up at half past six. My wife thinks I'm mad because she's getting up about one o'clock in the afternoon by kids are sleeping through tonight for God knows what time they go to bed. I don't know, I just leave them. I say we're not kids and they're on their tablets, or they're watching YouTube or whatever. But their body clocks are shifting around. Now. I don't think that's the right way of doing it. I think you've got to keep some kind of normality, even though you don't have Get up out of bed, get up out of bed. That's one of the things that I do. So, Harper six every morning I get up, I've had a shower by seven o'clock, and then I'm out in my garden. And even though it's cold, I wrap up warm because I can get some fresh air and I hate gardening. I really do hate coffee, I will do the bare minimum. But I've used it as motivation to get a bit of exercise and pressure. So I've been out there, planting flowers, moving things around sorting out my rocker and all the kind of things that you think to yourself I should do can't be asked. I've been doing that. And so that's been my morning, fresh air burst. And so I have my shower, I go out there and i i do over work and stuff and it's kind of quiet work. And I count the times I've taken my Alexa out and I plugged it in, and I played things like Johann Sebastian Bach, classical music that just kind of fits into the mood as I'm getting going. And now I'm looking out there I'm thinking it's never looked Good, it really does look brilliant. One of the things that I think somebody should invent is fence panels with flowers painted on it. So about you look up your garden and it looks like it's lovely. He probably is out there already. But I've suddenly thought to myself instead of just having fences, why don't we have painted flowery fences? vago that's a business for you? The next bit of balls is try not to read the news all the time. I like reading the BBC website because I think it's factually accurate. And it keeps me up with the news. I've realised that I became a bit obsessed by everything's going on. And it's the same time and time again, it's just more depth. It's more hospitals, it's more testing and stuff. So I'm trying to limit myself on that. Because it's not good for you. It makes you think that the world is crap. Now talking about that on YouTube, my son showed me there's the actor guy who's married to Emily Blunt, who was in the American office. Did jack Ryan on Amazon John's some video up I can't remember what his name is. And he's created this very loose podcast video show called. So good news. I think he's sGn. And all he's doing is bringing the good stuff to the world. So it's just positive. And he had Steve Carell the other day, and they were both on the zoo. And they were both making the show. And it's, it's good. It's nice little things that people are doing that keep you entertained. And a lot of the pop stars are doing concerts and, and Chris Martin and john legend did one which was very, very good. And there's an English comedian called Jimmy Carr. And he's doing the tiny little lockdown quiz, where six o'clock every day a video comes on YouTube. And then eight o'clock, the answers are there, and you can go on and you can test yourself. It's quite a hard quiz, but there's a lot of good stuff going on, people are making an effort. And once again, I think that the corporations will realise but they don't need this mass production. It's the, it's the vibe is the emotion that gets you and makes you want to see these things. So yeah, try not to read the news all the time, because that just brings you down and look for good stuff. And there was a guy on the BBC the other day, and he was somewhere in America. And him and his girlfriend, they look very fit and I think he was like a YouTube vlog or something because he said I all I'm doing is sitting indoors making YouTube videos. And because the bandwidth of the internet is so low at the moment, it's very difficult to get it online, so it's taken twice as long. Anyhow, he's girlfriend said, I'm going to go off and do some work and what she did, they moved into this block of flats, this apartment block and I hadn't met anyone, and the coronavirus has hit so they're sort of locked in. And so she went around writing these notes Putting them under the door of people to say, at seven o'clock, my boyfriend will be leaning out of this window, will you sing happy birthday to me? And so she took him out. And he said, you know, why are you filming this? What are we doing? Where are we going? You know, like men men like to be in control. And he lent out this window and 76 strangers, but he's never met before lent out the window, and they sang Happy Birthday to him, didn't know who he was. But it's just kindness. And we did a similar thing in the United Kingdom, where at eight o'clock last birthday, we all stood on our doorsteps and cheered our national health service, because of all the people that are helping us and supporting us and putting our own lives at risk to make lives better and get us through this situation. And there's loads of good stuff out there. If you look for it, you can get hung up on the bad stuff, but the good stuff, it really does make your heart swell and I I think the world is a great place anyway I do. I think 98% of people, or 97% of people are really good, and they just get on with their lives. And I try to not cause any issues to people. And then I think 2% of backers, and then 1% of serial killers, I think that's about it. And so if you can keep away from the 3%, you're gonna have a really good life. And so, look for good news. Good news is out there. And if anybody finds anything really sort of good, just send it to me at Join Up dots@gmail.com I love to receive good news. It helps me breeze through the life that we're in at the moment, and I really appreciate it. Now, the last thing or the last two things is get your exercise. Now, it's very easy to just slump on the sofa. And in the first couple of days, I was busy in the morning, then I'd go in for lunch. And then I go to fancy watching a film and once you put your bomb on the sofa, you're there all afternoon. And so now we're Leaving the films to the evening, and I'm getting out with my wife and we're doing a brisk walk. And we're walking to places that we don't even need to walk to. In the old days. If we had to go to the bank, we just jumped in the car. But now we're saying how would we leave the car and we would walk down there, it's, it's the exercise. So we're building exercise into our normal lives. And whether it's gardening, whether it's running up the stairs, or jumping on the spot, or using your wave bit, everything that sticks to the self isolating roles. That means, of course, you are getting some air into your lungs and your blood pumping. It's really, really useful. And the last thing the last thing guys is keep your mind in the game. I've struggled with this. I really have this has been without doubt, the worst period of my life for many different reasons. Although I've got grandchild on the way at the moment, it's probably popping out today. A kid called the Genoa yes Don't mention the name. I'm not sure about the name. But anyhow, she won't listen to this podcast. But it's going to be called Genoa because the husband is called Josie. And they like the name Noah. So stick together. Yeah. Okay, that's what I've decided to do. And he's gonna be popping into the world property today. My daughter has probably got her legs fall apart at the moment, and she's screaming, screaming at whoever's in there. So that's happening. So that's good. That's good. And I will tell you, if that pops into the well, I will do what about it and thing is we can't go and see it. So it's Another drawback. It'd be about 15 by the time we get there, it'd be smoking weed free tattoos and its own car. But I that is what life's about. But you've got to keep your mind in the game. You got to look for positives. You got to keep yourself in a routine because once the routine goes, a lot of your life is just a bit. So if anyone is out there listening to this podcast episode, I'd really love I'd really Any love for you to tell me how you're keeping the routine going what you're doing, because we can share it with the world that I'm sure people have got great ideas of what they're doing. And I'm totally up to sharing it. So just drop us an email, Join Up dots@gmail.com and just tell us or you can send us a video or whatever format you want to do. Just tell us how you keeping the routine going, what are you doing on a daily basis? How are you paying the bills, all the kinds of stuff and I will record podcast episodes and share it will be a good news podcast for this period of time. So you can be part of the game you can be part of helping me you can be part of helping the world through Join Up Dots. So Join Up dots@gmail.com just send me your your life at the moment. Any format you want, and I will share it with the world. Bye guys. This is one of those times when we will look back on it and we're Say, yeah, it was tough. But this was a reset this is when the world decided that it should operate in a different way. And if we suddenly go back to, you know, just jumping in our car and creating mass pollution, and not talking to people and just being isolated on the internet. Oh, that's not the case. I really don't. But until next time, thank you so much for listening to us. Thank you, for everybody that's listening to Join Up Dots. I don't know if it's because of the situation. But the audience figures are rapidly shooting up. So I imagine that people out there thinking what can I do to pass the time, and they're finding my level to show and giving it a go. So I appreciate you being here as well. And until next time, I look forward to all the emails that come through. Let's get going. Let's share the positivity and the good stuff that's going on in all our lives. And even if it's an idea to pass a couple of hours, please let me know Join Up Dots at gmail. Don't come. And I will share that with the world. Until next time, thank you so much. And I'll see you again. Bye bye. Outro 19:07 David doesn't want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you or wants to become. So he's put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we'll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.