2021 - The one I didn’t see coming

I was trying to assimilate my thoughts as I was doing my annual ritual of reflections at the end of the year, The way I could think of 2021 was “The one thing I didn’t see coming…”, the year had no familiarity of what has happened before in life, full of sorrows and happiness, uncharted territory of existence.

So, what role will this year play in my life in terms of shaping me as an individual’s –

1. Being Human, compassion, and empathy for everyone. Contribute to any form and shape to humanity. Maybe just a phone call to a friend in need, a piece of advice to a struggling fellow human, a meal together with the people you love.
2. Celebration of life, I lost a couple of friends and close family members in the last 12 months, I assume this will be a similar story for most of us. What amazed me was a piece of advice from my mom-in-law, who lost her 46-year-old son. She said, we are not alone in this there are many people going through this, but let’s live life with those who are still with us, you don’t know how long even those are going to be around.
3. Being vulnerable, I used to hold back to my challenges, and was difficult to open to me being vulnerable was a sign of weakness. I felt very liberated by sharing, how am I feeling, asking for help, and acceptance of what I was going through. To my surprise, the world out there embraced me wholeheartedly, be it, colleagues or family.
4. Importance of mental health, there are those 10000 steps to count physical health measure. I wish there was something similar to knowing the status of mental well-being. It took me a while to even be aware of what it means to take care of mental health.

The year also inspired me to do a few new things -

1. Started to do mandala art coloring
2. Completed 6 weeks writing fellowship from Network capital
3. Enrolled with formal synthesizer teacher
4. Yoga as my great companion

As I sum up 2021, on the career front, with the fragility of life, I am working to move forward with clarity around “what I don’t want to do” vs what I want to do in the next 2-3 years. The possibilities of what I want to do are enormous and avenues keep opening, but having clarity of what not to do was hazy for me.

Wishing all of you a great 2022 ahead and I am sure it will bring new learnings to life.