Congratulate Yourself on a Great Year

I know what you were thinking when you saw the title of this article… Great year?

WHO’S HAD A GREAT YEAR???

But hang on there for just a second. Before you brush me off…

Before you’re ready to sweep 2020 under the carpet and focus on your resolutions for how you’ll make 2021 that much better…

Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on all that you’ve accomplished in 2020.

Now, I know that you might be feeling confused here. You might be feeling more like a failure than someone who’s accomplished a ton this year.

You didn’t get anywhere near those annual targets you’d laid out last year. You didn’t reach your sales objectives. You may have had to make the extremely difficult decision to let go of half of your employees. Or maybe you found yourself caught in an industry that was just slammed this year and you’ve been scrambling non-stop just trying to keep up with demand. 

At this point, you may be simply exhausted from the chaos.

But the reality is that no matter how many target goals you missed this year, it’s important to not lose sigh of what you have done this year.

YOU MADE IT THROUGH A PANDEMIC.

A global pandemic, where the world literally SHUT DOWN. 

The world as we knew it stopped entirely and you’ve managed to make your way through it.

If the only thing that you managed to do this year was to get out of bed some days, well then, you managed that.

If you managed to get yourself to work, despite your exhaustion, then you did that.

If you managed to keep putting one foot after the next, slowly working to keep your business afloat despite losing tons of revenue or having to lay people off, then you’ve gotten through that.

We’re so quick to direct our attention to what we didn’t manage to do this past year, that we forget all that we’ve managed to get through.

How about, if we just take a moment to appreciate the insane amount of resilience you’ve shown this past year?

Before we start to shift our attention to how much better things will be in 2021, let’s give space for what we’ve lived this past year.

In a situation of extreme stress, you are still here today. Managing - in whatever way, shape or form that managing may look like for you right now. It may not always look pretty. And that is ok. But you are managing.

And you will continue to be able to manage. Even when it feels like you won’t be. 

The reality is that you’ve made it this far and you still have that resilience deep within yourself to keep going, no matter what this pandemic brings.

We have no clue what 2021 will bring. But knowing that you got through 2020 is a pretty good indicator that you’ll get through 2021 as well.

With that, I wish every single one of you the very best for the year to come. 

And please, if you ever feel like you no longer have it within you to keep on managing, reach out for help.

Lindsay Lapaquette works with organizations who want to invest in elevating team performance by refining leadership communication skills. Lindsay's background as a former Speech-Language Pathologist, specialized in working with clients with social interaction difficulties, brings a unique perspective that helps leaders and organizations get to the root of complex communication issues so they can save time, money and sanity.

?To learn more about Lindsay’s coaching, speaking and consulting, visit lindsaylapaquette.com

?