Dear hosts, do you ever notice your lovely thoughts? (How many thoughts do we think a day? A minute..?) Believe there are a lot.
And of those many thoughts, how many are about the past? About what it was? What it wasn’t? Or even worse, how many of those unlovely, worrisome thoughts are about the future? About what is going to be and how bad it’s going to get or how bad of a job you’re doing? Or someone else is doing? Because of course, you can do better. Today I’m going to ask the question “What Are You Thinking and Is It Helping You?”
The reason for today’s episode is because I’m on today of curfew…What day is today? Today. yes, that many. Sometimes it feels like our day is to feed the cats, breakfast, second breakfast for the cats, do the dishes, snack for the cats, lunch, are the cats hungry? Dishes, the cats are meowing again… dinner, where are the cats? Dishes again, feed the cats, watch something, night snacks for the cats, sleep… And repeat.
Ohh and they’re not our cats!
They adopted us from the street, and now we have three cats who have decided to pass the quarantine with us. I don’t know if we’re their people or just their food dispenser. Yes, in the middle of that I freak out, talk to my mom, and do some work. Manage my New York home. Maybe watch some news. And try not to get lost too much in my thoughts.
My Mind / My Thoughts:
What I notice is how my mind and my thoughts are changing.
At the beginning of curfew, I was back and forth between the NY Times, BBC, CDC, and WHO. Obsessed with numbers and information.Getting guests’ cancelations, one after the other.
I remember that first cancelation after March 15th–that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
And my thoughts and feelings were…
Oh, no… we’re done. I’m done… My business. My home.
How am I going to survive this? How is the world going to survive this?
Now I’m changing… Or should I say, evolving?
A Ray of Hope
Eventually, I got a couple of reservations from locals.. And I felt some hope.
I also started listening to Brooke Castillo’s The Life Coach School podcast. Brooke is a Life Coach and mentor that I listen to, and she’s doing a series From Handling the Crisis to Moving Forward. It’s totally worth spending time with her in your ears.
Listening to Brooke gave me peace and hope.
Nothing else in the world or my life has changed, Airbnb still refunded guests, I still have cancelations, I’m still in curfew. New York is still a hot zone of cases. And we’re still in the middle of this pandemic.
My Thoughts
But my thoughts create feelings, which create actions and results.
Dear hosts. Let me give you an example.
I knew that what I needed to do was to open my home to travel nurses.
My original thoughts were:
I have never done this.. I don’t know-how.
I don’t know where to start.
Where do I even go? What if I’m doing it wrong?
I’m not even making the same money I was making before.
Were those thoughts serving me? Helping me in any way? Of course not.
Hey, I had never done Airbnb before 2010, I didn’t know-how. If you listen to episode 1, My Hosting Journey Story, you will know that I just had a party the night before my first guest arrived. I didn’t even have a coffee maker.
Yeah, that was me back then in 2010.
Now I know better, and I know I’ll have my home ready for nurses. They will have three choices of coffee makers and a tea kettle. There will be coffee and tea waiting for them.
I’m not going to provide that for their entire three-month stay, but at least I’ll have it there to get them started.
Is the thought helping or hurting?
“My thoughts aren’t helping me with what I need to do right now. Instead, they’re stopping the progress.”
It was hard saying that to myself. It was hard to make myself stop and think, “This is what I need to do right now for my home. I can’t think about what will happen in June or July.”
You know why I need to think that way? It’s because I have no clue as to when the travel ban will be lifted. And if it’s lifted, will people want to travel to NY? Maybe, maybe not. I won’t know until it happens.
Instead, I do what I need to do right now to protect my business right now. I have Donna from Episode 60 All You Need to Know About Travel Nurses and Episode 104 The Travel Nurse Market in 2020, and she has been a godsend. I have sent her contracts, asked her questions, and made lots of late-night phone calls.
This is one of the reasons why I decided to create The Travel Nurse Playbook course for you. I wanted to share all my learnings with you.
What can I control?
As long as I’m healthy, I can cook meals, do dishes, feed the cats, work out, meditate, listen to podcasts, maybe watch some news, talk to my mom and dad, wash my hands. 20 seconds people. 20 seconds!
I can’t control whether my mom or dad will decide to leave their house.. Trust me, they want to do it, no matter how many times I tell them they shouldn’t. They’re adults doing adult things. Amazing, right– that people don’t do what’s best for them according to us?
I can direct my thoughts so I’m productive and don’t beat myself up. I can have compassion and empathy. I can remind myself that this will pass.
I can be ready for whenever Airbnb decides to refund me. So I have done all my accounting.
I can get my taxes done so I can apply for any help that is due to me.
I can work on my thoughts, see what I’m thinking, and decide if this is helping me. Is this thought serving me? Because what I’m thinking is something that I have some control over.
What are you thinking?
My dear hosts, may your thoughts move you towards clarity, peace, and positive action.
