Yes, Covid-19 has brought some good changes to our lives.
Please do not think for a second that we are happy with the current situation and what will be coming in the next year or more. We are just looking at some of the positive points that this dangerous pandemic has taught us.
There are lessons learnt that would not have been possible if life carried on as before Covid-19. It is time for all of us to take note of our lives and not take many things and the people around us for granted as we did before the arrival of Covid-19.
Here below is our eight points that we think many should be thankful and start learning from.
Covid-19 has made is realize the need to be clean and keep ourselves and our surroundings clean. In Malaysia and most of ASEAN, cleanliness has been secondary, with food and surroundings. This harsh lesson has been a good wake up call for many.
- Patience is something many of us lack. At bus-stops, shopping mall eateries, payment counters, etc, many lack the patience to line-up or give space to the person in front. We are now taught (forced) to line-up and provide a space between.
- Learning to cook. With lockdowns and the rising cost of restaurant food, many have been forced to learn to cook and at the same time learnt about quality of food and the need to avoid low quality restaurant food.
- Eating healthy has become a priority and many have learnt to make their own healthy meals at lower cost.
- We have learnt a number of new words. Frontliners, Asymptomatic, Efficacy, Pandemic and let us not forget, ‘Spanish Fly’ which has been trending after one of our politicians used the term repeatedly at a press conference. Now even Malaysian kids know what it is………!
- Loan Moratorium – When banks can allow a borrower some time, 3-4 months’ top make their next payment without imposing an interest penalty. When it comes to car loans, this is better than repossessing the car as no car owner wants to lose their down-payment and more just because they have a few tough months to weather.
- Many of us have never realized how much better it is to be working from home and then there are others who cannot work from home. We have been working from home for almost 21 years. Yes, this has been our method and from the start we have never had an office or even a shared office space. Our staff have all had to work from home from the start of their employment. This is why for us and our www.dsf.my team, working from home has been easy during this pandemic and many have questioned our management ways and how we ‘control’ our staff. Simple. When you have great people working for you, it comes easy.
- The need to spend your money wisely and save for a rainy day. Many Malaysians spend more then they earn every month, year after year. They have no savings and when there is a dent in their monthly income, all is lost. This pandemic has taught many to power of savings and the power of being careful with money. Do you really need a new hand phone every year? Why buy more? We keep asking the question with the younger generation. Do you really need 3 different running shoes? Do you need so many designer handbags? Do you really need 5 different hand phone covers? Do you really need 3 different headphones? Buy what you need and not what you want.
- Exercise to stay healthy has been something many of us have neglected because of the lack of time. Yes, getting to work and back from work takes time, for some as much as two to three hours a day commuting to and fro. At the end of the work day you are just to tired to go to the gym or just take a quick run. Working from home allows us to save that time and use it wisely to exercise or to get into Yoga.
