2020 ??

Most people felt relieved that the year 2020 had gone !  The reason being it was perceived to be a bad year due to the significant impact on life that resulted during the year from Covid-19. I too was one of those who initially felt so.

Whenever such negative thinking tries to enter my mind, I always tend to manage it by taking time to reflect on the subject. And when I reflect on things, the bad feeling disappears and the mind gets slowly filled up with the lessons learnt from it. 

On the New Year day of 2021, I spent time with family to reflect on 2020. My reflection revealed that after all it was not a bad year and in fact I could see an overall improvement in my behaviour and skills that actually contributed to my personal, family, social and work life ! The areas of improvement include the following :

Empathy : I got personally and virtually more closer to people who matter to me. I was able to quickly understand their needs, challenges and priorities and also realised that these kept changing faster with time since March 2020. I was fast becoming more human-centric.

Agility and Adaptability :  I kept thinking about doing things faster and differently taking into consideration all the options available and possible.  That resulted in me receiving unsolicited feedback of satisfaction, delight and gratitude from those that matter to me.

Flexibility : I have now got a lot of flexibility to work or do things anytime, anywhere and at my own pace but am still able to fully meet the requirements/expectations of everyone connected to me. I have suddenly found some extra time to do anything I want to. Productivity has increased. Quality of work has improved. Understood that sometimes it is OK not to be perfect, but important to be effective and efficient. Improved time management.

Fit for purpose : Increased focus on what and how much I “need” vs what I “want” or “desire” ! This has resulted in far better management of money, materials, options and requirements. This has come from the fact and realisation that how lucky I am to be living in New Zealand where the quality of life, in spite of Covid, is a lot better than most other parts of the world. I sincerely wish the whole world to be back to normal. With the arrival of vaccine, there is certainly a light at the end of the tunnel.

Digital : Learnt a lot about effectively using technology to save time and improve quality of delivery. For a person who strongly believes in offline purchase, I have now begun online shopping as appropriate.

In fact I was living with the illusion that I am already good at some of the above areas, only to learn it in the hard way that there is a lot of room for improvement.  My complacency has been kicked out me while I was staring at the reality of how much I did not know ! Thanks to 2020 !

So, the year 2020 was really an educative one and has contributed to my personal development and positive mindset. The key lesson was that unexpected challenges (that are beyond our control) only bring the best out of us !

I am optimistic, so look forward to a great year 2021 ahead. However, realistically I expect 2021 to be equally or more challenging too which, I now know well, is not bad at all ??. It will pass and we can learn more !