In the not too distant past, most of us tended to live life from week to week while the more optimistic among us lived from month to month.
ight now, let's face it, if we're honest, we live from hour to hour, our lives focused on the surreptitious glances we direct to our mobile phones in order to ascertain Covid-19 updates.
In the current alarming climate, this is entirely understandable given the anxieties, fear and uncertainty that we all harbour.
These feelings serve to temper our outlook and they definitely impact on our morale. Yet, although sport is far from being viewed as an essential ingredient in life, it nonetheless provides a lens through which we can view things from a rather more upbeat stance.
Like everyone else, I am filled with foreboding going forward, yet I am wrestling with myself in an ongoing bid to adopt a glass half-full overview.
When the GAA authorities set the weekend of February 27-28 as the starting point for the return of inter-county action via the Allianz Leagues, I thought this was a sensible decision.
Obviously as the days slide by we become more wary and unsettled in relation to the future, yet I for one remain steadfast that we can hit this target.
There are those with misgivings, and that is understandable, but when it is considered that we are referring here to what is regarded by the health bodies on either side of the border and the two Governments as 'elite sport', we have to be prepared for the challenges that this will bring.
Inter-county players were regarded as elite athletes in November and December, and while I accept that the Covid-19 numbers have gone up since then, there is no reason for thinking that the GAA cannot stage its Allianz Leagues in the same impeccable fashion in which it unravelled its provincial and All-Ireland Championships.
While there will be no collective training this month, there is the possibility that it might resume next month. I have to say that I have a certain amount of sympathy with counties such as Cork and Down, who have incurred the wrath of officialdom for allegedly breaching collective training restrictions. And I also feel that Mayo are being a little hard done by for having three more personnel than they should have had in their overall All-Ireland Final party at Croke Park last month.
From my own personal experience, anecdotal evidence would convince me that a lot of county teams were back training in December.
One of the main reasons why inter-county action was fixed for the first half of this year was because it was felt that counties could be a little more flexible in relation to training and their overall fixtures programmes would not be unduly demanding.
While I am fully aware of the heartache that Covid-19 has brought to so many families up and down the entire length of the island, I still think that over recent months sport has had a massive part to play in helping to provide us with some semblance of normality.
I know that when I sit down with my children to watch Premier League football, cricket, basketball, rugby or any other sport, the atmosphere in the house lights up and the questions - and banter - come thick and fast. I find this a glorious distraction - indeed, it lifts my morale and clearly does that of the children no harm at all.
Maybe my views will see me labelled as a pariah of sorts but that's something that I will have to learn to live with.
It is my sincere hope that the League action will get under way at the end of next month. When you think about it, in a matter of weeks a full year will have elapsed since the initial GAA fixtures lockdown was decreed. It just doesn't bear thinking about, does it?
We should change tack, not rules
Over the past year or so, the Standing Playing Rules Committee appeared to be one of the busiest within the GAA.
In recent times, tampering with playing rules has become something of an obsession and I cannot for the life of me understand why.
I have always maintained that Gaelic football is a perfectly good product as it is without the need for even further modifications.
While I acknowledged that certain rules required to be amended in the recent past, I don't believe that the game as we know it today needs any additional amendments - in fact, I take the opposite view.
The sooner the advance 'mark' and the pass back to the goalkeeper are done away with the better. I don't think either of these two items bring anything to the table - indeed, the advance 'mark' tends to provide teams with the opportunity to avail of what I can only describe as a 'gift' score.
While I am aware that the rules body has proposed that a penalty be awarded for a cynical foul that denies a goalscoring opportunity in this year's All-Ireland Football and Hurling Championships and also urges that players who interfere in any way with others who may be in the act of taking a free-kick or puck should be punished, I think that both codes should remain untouched.
The reason for this is because there will be very limited time in which players will be able to prepare properly for a return to action. As things stand, they may only get three weeks in which to gear up for the new season, and this surely will be required for fitness, strength and conditioning and tactical planning rather than for yet another familiarisation process involving new rules.
There are other elements of new rules governing the playing of games that are being pursued as I understand it, but I think this should be deferred.
The majority of players have participated in just three competitive matches at inter-county level since last March.
Thus when the action hopefully resumes at the end of next month, players will want to be focused on their physical welfare rather than on unnecessary rules amendments.
There may well be a case for bringing in fresh rule modifications in 2022 when it is expected that there could perhaps be a restructuring of the Championship format.
But for now I think players will be keen to resume playing the game they love within the format with which they are familiar.
A number of people believe there has been sufficient tampering with the playing rules in the recent past and I am one of them.
McGeeney must make some Corr alterations
There is currently a clampdown on on-field activity but behind the scenes the wheels of change are still turning within the GAA.
Armagh is among the latest counties to experience a management team shake-up now that Jim McCorry has stepped down as Kieran McGeeney's No.2.
He brought his considerable coaching skills to bear in fine style and had much to do with the team's promotion to Division One of the Allianz League.
But McCorry has now called time on his involvement for personal reasons. His exit follows those of Paddy McKeever and John Toal, both of whom had been part of the backroom team.
With former Kerry player Kieran Donaghy having already been confirmed as part of the team behind the team for 2021, McGeeney now faces the challenge of introducing more new faces.
Armagh confront a stiff test in Division One North as they are bracketed with Tyrone, Donegal and Monaghan and will hope to atone for last year's disappointing Semi-Final loss to Donegal when the Ulster Championship comes round.
The fact that McCorry has already committed himself to managing Down club Burren will certainly keep him occupied and, although there is now a split-season, club sides will face a level of concerted preparation that will ensure McCorry is kept on his toes.
Given the current circumstances, and the fact that the resumption of inter-county action could still be some way off, attempting to fulfil two different roles in this situation might not have been the best undertaking.
I played under McCorry and the late John Morrison when they were in charge of Armagh in the '90s before Jim went on to achieve great things with Kilcoo.
His latest Armagh exit will offer the opportunity to introduce a few fresh ideas.
I wish Kieran McGeeney well.
