How to appreciate the positive in 2020
I don't have to tell you what a year 2020 has been for the world.
We have seen devastating fires, horrible injustice, violence, explosions and a global pandemic. We have also seen people coming together to fight injustice and expose institutional racism; the first female, black, South Asian US vice-president was elected; the quality of air improved in many part of the world as a result of travel restrictions; the return of some rare specie; the development and approval of a vaccine for Covid-19 and the eradication of polio from the African continent.
2020 has been transformational for our lives too. We had to quickly adapt to a new way of living and working, we had to juggle children and homeschooling and working from home, and not being able to see our loved ones. We lost people, and had to say goodbye and grief them from afar. We lost our jobs, we felt lonely and anxious. But we have also took this opportunity to make life changes, to reset our priorities, to make exciting plans and value things we were taking for granted.
If we take a moment to reflect and focus on the things we have discovered about ourselves and the changes we have made or are planning to make in our lives, we can appreciate the positive in this crazy year, and say goodbye to 2020 with relief but also with gratitude.
So here is a series of questions for you to ask yourself: if COVID were to disappear tomorrow, will you be happy to go back to your life as it was before or will you change anything?
-Is there anything you have learned you can live without and would happily eliminate from your life?
-Is there anything you have learned you can't live without and have appreciated more than ever?
- Have you realised your family is your number one priority and that you want to be more present or closer to them?
-Have you understood your partner better by sharing or changing your roles within your home or family?
-Have you enjoyed working from home? Will you try and make any changes or start a conversation with your boss to make sure you can keep that flexibility?
-Have you not missed your workplace at all and maybe realised it might be time to change your job or career?
Most of all, concentrate on what this year has allowed you to discover about yourself, your skills and your strengths. Sure, we all suffered, mentally and emotionally. But we have also survived, and made it through a big challenge, and came out of it stronger, more resilient, and maybe - why not - even a bit more positive.
Wishing you all the very best,
Fede
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