As states continue to reopen and coronavirus cases surge throughout several parts of the United States, families are facing a patchwork of contradictory rules/guidances surrounding social distancing, making it difficult to assess the risks associated with different activities.

While we’ve all seen the reports of large groups blatantly ignoring social distancing guidelines, the more prominent, and perhaps problematic, social distancing challenge is coming from people who simply are confused about what measures to take, or believe the negative impacts of social distancing outweigh the potential risks. 

With a barrage of conflicting opinions, consumers are understandably divided on the appropriate social distancing measures that allow for them to be safe, but also allow for the natural social connection they crave as humans to stay mentally healthy. Peter Kozodoy, TEDx Speaker and author of Honest to Greatness: How Today’s Greatest Leaders Use Brutal Honesty to Achieve Massive Success, says it’s time to be honest with ourselves in our social distancing efforts.  

In an interview, Peter can provide expert insight into how Americans can honestly reflect on their social distancing patterns and how we can address both the internal conflict and the actions we take with friends and family, including:

• Addressing Our Strong, Emotional Pull Of Social Contact: Humans are social creatures who long for connectivity and social acceptance.  We need to be self-aware of how strong our human connections are and how tightly we cling to social norms like celebrating holidays with loved ones. By recognizing this, we can hope to use logic and reason to overcome that emotional pull and do the difficult—but necessary—thing by saying “no” to the events we’ve enjoyed for years.

• The True Size Of Our ‘Bubble’: After months of this new normal, families are gradually opening up their social circles to include extended family members, neighbors, or close friends, but folks aren’t being honest about how large their social “bubble” has become with others. The pandemic makes a good case for us all to ask the tough questions of where folks have been for the sake of protecting each other. 

• What It Takes To Beat This Coronavirus.  If we keep pretending to care about social distancing without actually distancing, we’ll keep seeing a rise in cases. Only by getting brutally honest about what it takes to keep our distance will we have the slightest hope of saving lives and reopening our economy for good.