Is COVID-19 Bringing Cult-Classic Groundhog Day to Life?

I don’t know about you, but I’m now feeling that I’m living each and everyday as though it’s just another Groundhog day. That cult 1993 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell is now invading my everyday life. Covid-19, I feel has caused all of this to happen. If you live in North America, and specifically from Pennsylvania, you probably know the tradition for Groundhog Day.

The Groundhog comes out of it’s burrow on Feb 2nd each year to make a seasonal prediction. If the Groundhog sees it’s shadow, winter will be with us for another six more weeks. If it’s cloudy, spring is just around the corner. I feel the same way about getting the Covid-19 vaccine. One day it looks like spring and I will get the vaccine and then other days it’s still winter and I need to wait another 4-6 months.

Right now it looks like winter will be with us for some time. Hope I’m wrong! Covid-19 has also become our excuse for eating and drinking too much and maybe for some like me, working too much. And, I know that I’m working too much. Maybe also drinking too much. But, I’m fortunate to be living in Vancouver, B.C. Canada because we can still go to restaurants and visit with friends and family while still being careful. I can also go to my office.

But Covid-19 can also turn that into a rut of doing the same things over and over again. And doing the same thing over and over, causes stress. The old saying or definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over” and expecting different results. Insanity is living with most of us now.

Nearly 70% of employees indicated in a survey by a mental health provider said that the Covid-19 pandemic is the most stressful time of their entire professional career. It also caused increases in new prescriptions of antidepressant, antianxiety and anti-insomnia medications. The good news is that Covid-19 will end. Not sure how or when this will end, but eventually, this will end.

In the meantime, practice social distancing, wash your hands, be especially kind to others. Maybe when this over we might have become better at what we taken for granted?

Written by Frank Palmer, Chairman of Palmer Stamnes DDB