Appreciate what we have. It’s the only way to get through this. If 2020 has taught me anything it is to appreciate the basics, and be thankful for good health. But the key to good health and being able to appreciate the basics is having motivation. Without motivation, life can spiral downwards. An old friend of mine used to sip his pint or watch his team win a match and exclaim: “Ah isn’t it great to be alive?” And you know what? He was the happiest most bashful man you’d ever meet.

It took me a while to realise that his simple thought out loud was in fact a tonic with the placebo effect of making him happier. On 6 March last, I was leaving the studio having finished a week presenting Liveline. The pandemic had been all the talk on the phones. It was the last week of quasi normality I remember.

My boss called me aside and told me to go home and stay home except for presenting Countrywide the week after. It earned me the title among colleagues as “designated survivor”. They wanted me to try and isolate as best I could in case there was an outbreak in the radio centre.

In radio land, the show must go on so I would be called into action if required. As far as I know that loose arrangement remains. I’ve more or less been isolated all summer but thankfully there have been no emergency call ups.

My sixth sense back in March was to find a routine and be motivated. Cooking and running have been the simple ingredients. And it has allowed me readjust to a new life of eschewing the necessity for material comforts and social interaction and accepting that in order to be happy you have to work on it rather than expect it, demand it or buy it. My father’s business (a pub which is run by my brother) has been closed up more or less since March and many of my close friends in the media and entertainment industries have been out of work too.

So I’m not immune from the unhappiness and anguish that 2020 has inflicted on people. And before you proffer the view that I am somehow privileged, I live alone having been separated for almost seven years. That happens sadly in life, but thankfully we live close by and all get on fantastic.

So, yes I know what anguish and hopelessness feels like. And it’s why I’m able to sit here on my apartment balcony on a gorgeous autumnal morning and appreciate how lucky I am. I came through it and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

In this mental health awareness week, remember that nobody is perfect, nobody knows everything. Every single human being has a skill and something to offer that is unique to them. I’m able to go for a run every day. Many of the famous, rich and powerful can’t. I might be able to interview An Taoiseach but I would be useless on a farm or behind the bar.

Don’t waste a crisis to avail of an opportunity. It may sound easy to say but resilience and motivation is vital armoury free to all of us. It’s in all of us. You just look within and find it and you’ll discover that by humbly accepting the simple basics in life rather than reaching for temporary comforts, you’ll be free of anguish and worry. Accept who you are. Be selfish. Look after yourself.