As a volunteer at Children’s hospital my focus was on sick children; I was cautioned to remind myself of all the healthy children in the area to prevent unwarranted fear for the children in my life.

As a Guardian Ad Litem my focus was on neglected children who needed an advocate; I was trained to take time to focus on all the children who were in healthy, happy, loving homes to prevent feelings of depression.

As a Quality Engineer my focus was on every order that was returned for evaluation; I was mentored to stop once in a while and focus on all the thousands of orders we shipped that had no concerns to prevent feelings of failure.

As a woman with ADHD my mind goes 100mph with constant racing thoughts. My “To Do” list is longer than there are hours in the day. I was waking up feeling overwhelmed before my feet ever hit the floor. That was leaving me feeling frustrated, angry and not much fun to be around; I took the focus off my entire “To Do” list and made it a game. Every day I wake up I pick one thing – just one thing – and say “today this is my goal.” If I get more than that one thing done – BONUS! But at least I have a little victory to celebrate and I “changed my focus” from the things I don’t have done, to the things I do! Seems simple, but it’s a game changer!

As a society living during a quarantine due to a virus I caution you to focus on the data, not the fear being strewn through social media. Go find a reputable site with real statistics. I mean no disrespect to those who have had the virus or who have passed because of it. But we also need to keep some perspective. This morning I found the following statistics:

Normal Flu season 2018-2019 for the United States:
42.9 million people were sick with the flu
647,000 were hosptialized
61,200 died of the flu
These statistics were actually much lower than what the CDC predicted. And yet, life went on as normal….

Coronavirus United States Statistics as of today:
644,188 confirmed cases
(Number is likely way larger due to those who had it and pulled through without testing)
28,579 deaths.
(This is 1/3 of the deaths the US experienced due to the normal flu).
52,629 Recoveries!

Let’s focus on the good, wash our hands and say our prayers and stop the spread of fear!