It seems like just a few short months ago that it was December 2019 and I was excitedly sitting at my desk, figuring out my goals for 2020. I was wrapping up a strong 2019 and I felt unstoppable. Little did I know that 2020 would become the year of self reflection.
Now I sit here with a little over 100 days left, trying to make the best of them - wondering how to achieve the goals I set, before setting new ones for 2021.
You might think I'm rushing things along, but time is not something we are promised and I believe 2020 taught us all a valuable lesson in that.
You might be like yes!!! F*uck off 2020, I'm over you!! However I believe 2020 was something we needed to experience.
None of us could have guessed that life would change in the manner that it did this year.
Covid-19 placed us all on lock-down in our homes, with a lot of time to really reflect on where we were in life. There were no escapes from our everyday lives. There wasn't much to distract us from our problems. No travel, no dinner out with friends, no work commutes to give us a break from family. We were forced to face the daily lives we found ourselves in head on. Good or bad. Happy or sad. It became a challenging time for some and a time for extreme gratitude for others.
Many people lost loved ones or close friends to Covid-19 or had loved ones become sick. Some people weren't directly impacted by the virus but instead were impacted by the new lifestyle norm. As a result of being in close quarters together for so long, some relationships became stronger, while others crumbled. Same goes for mindsets. Some became stronger and gained clarity on direction in life and others couldn't handle the isolation which resulted in depression and a feeling of being lost.
There was/is no right or wrong here and there are many in-betweens when it comes to the emotions of 2020. I personally had many ups, a lot of downs and decided to use this time to get clear about what was working and what was not working.
What did I want my life to look like?
What did happiness feel like?
What made me unhappy?
Where did I want to be a year from now?
What could I focus on each day to help myself achieve these things?
These questions became a daily focus for me. I practiced gratitude daily. I began to journal about my feelings so I could figure out what was working in my favor when it came to my daily routine and what needed to be tweaked. I did this because 2020 taught me that life is precious and it can change in the blink of an eye.
Some of the answers I had long known, others surprised me. There were days that I journaled and the crap I had been repressing for years came out. It felt like a weight was lifted off of me and like I could move forward in some way. Other days I journaled about things I thought I was over but I clearly was not. Then there were days that I just laid on my couch and watched Netflix all day because I didn't want to think about it all. 2020 was definitely mentally exhausting at times.
While 2020 did not play out the way I thought it would while sitting at my desk in December 2019, making my goal board... it did end up playing out the way it needed to, so I could gain some clarity and direction in my life.
Do I have it all figured out? Hell no. But I have a better idea of the things I need to do and try in order to move in the direction I would like to go. I also have better idea of the things that don't make me happy so I don't spend time doing them. (This is important - especially when it comes to time management!)
So here is a 100 day challenge for you...
We have a little over 100 days until the roller coaster of 2020 ends. A lot has happened and a lot is still to come with the upcoming election. 2020 has been a year ripe with emotions and it is testing all of us.
If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is that I cannot stress myself out over things that I cannot control and that time is not a guaranteed thing.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. -Tolkien
What I can do (and you can too) is make the most out of these next 100 days.
Dust off the goals you set for yourself at the start of 2020 and see if you still feel a connection to them. If you do, ask yourself what you can do today to get one step closer to achieving them? If you don't, what goals can you set for yourself that you can use the next 100 days to work towards?
They don't need to be crazy big goals. Maybe it's just getting back into a hobby that you stopped doing during quarantine. Maybe it's becoming active again or taking an on-line class because you realize that your job no longer makes you happy but you need to learn some things in order to make a career change.
The challenge here is to figure out what makes you happy and then start doing more of it - or start taking steps to ensure you can make it happen.
Here's to the next 100 days.... here's to more time feeling inspired and less time feeling stressed, because I'm sure we have spent way too much of this year feeling stressed and uncertain. It's time for change.
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