So, my forward-looking approach this year is “Who do I want to be in 2021?”
I am the person that usually looks at the year that’s ending with a forward-looking approach.
What from what I have gone through this year would I like repeated in the next year? What would I improve on? What would I want more of? What would my attitude be?
Like everything else in 2020, I realize this might not be so easy to do, so I sat down and just took all of 2020 in….
If 2020 was an ordinary year, I would have worked, travelled a lot, spent some time with my family and friends and some of my time volunteering.
Instead I got to work – maybe a bit disorganized until I learned how to find balance when working from home, which by the way, I sometimes still search for 😊; I volunteered a lot more; I organized Zoom calls with my family and friends that I haven’t talked to in a while; and one of the most exciting parts of my 2020 was that I met so many great people. A special thank goes to the group of amazing individuals/women I met during Grand Heron International’s Friday morning Coffee and Conversation sessions who taught me so much about resilience, hope and gratitude.
There isn’t much from what I told you so far that is any different from what any of you experienced in 2020, and that is exactly the point! 2020 was an extra-ordinary year that forced us to slow down and do ordinary things (ordinary based on our definition pre-2020) that went a long way and made us look at the world from different perspectives.
If 2020 was an ordinary year, around this time of the year I would have probably been busy making lots of plans for the Holidays and for the entire 2021 ahead of us. Planning does not take a lot of space right now and while, like a lot of you, I feel overwhelmed by the uncertainty we live in, I decided I am going to make a conscious choice, embrace that “stillness” in our lives to acknowledge and reflect on the extraordinary things that came our way this year.
Gabriela Nitu, Grand Heron International Coach
Let’s give ourselves permission to be still and not feel guilty about it. Let’s give ourselves permission to feel compassionate for what we have gone through this year, and most importantly, to feel grateful for what we have.
If 2020 was an ordinary year, we would have done lots of familiar things. But 2020 was extra-ordinary and taught us to stop “doing” and start “being”.
