Thank You 2020!.

I know that merely reading the topic would make some people fume and the others would assume that this would be one of those cynical pieces. I can assure you that this is not going to be a cynical or satirical piece. 

The year started with a bad note with the news of the novel Coronavirus spreading to many parts of the world and the spread intensifying to an extent whereby almost all governments all over the world were forced to impose restrictive lockdowns to contain the spread. The year saw more than one and a half million lives being lost to the pandemic and tens of millions of jobs being lost. The year also saw a stupendous fall in the global stock markets followed by an even sharper rebound of historic proportions, on an almost hockey stick like trajectory. Most people have been confined to their homes and work-from-home has become the new normal for service sector professionals. When outside their homes, people have been forced to breathe through masks and use sanitizers continually in order to keep safe. Also, due to continued restrictions on movements, people’s social lives have suffered.

Almost all people that I know and speak to, have already concluded that 2020 will be the worst year of their lives – both professionally and personally. I beg to differ with both the viewpoints. 

Personally, my feeling is that this is one of the best years I have had. Yes, there have been no movies to go to, no vacations, no weekend getaways, no parties, no social gatherings, lesser selfie uploads to Instagram even. And for some people, this feels like the worst pain they have ever endured, and they just cannot wait to get vaccinated and get back to life as usual. But just think about it for a moment, what about the things you have received as a result of all that time getting freed up. People have enjoyed movies at home in their living rooms with their family and enjoyed the freedom to watch at their own time. People have enjoyed more meals with their families on their dinner tables than they would have. People have enjoyed the luxury of additional time to read, discover new hobbies, learn new skills online and spend more quality time with their loved ones. People have been granted the luxury of time to figure out their lifestyle choices and what really matters to them and what optimizes their level of happiness. For us Indians, one of the biggest changes in our life due to the lockdown was the forced absence of domestic helps in our lives. We learned how it might to be live at home in a developed country and the process, if taken in the right stride, made us all appreciate the effort involved in keeping one’s home neat and clean and also made us feel less entitled and humbler. Being confined inside their homes, some people have taken the opportunity presented by the clearing out of the outside noise to look within and realize their true needs and priorities in life. If one asks me, the pros of being confined at home, far outweigh the cons.

Professionally, this year has not been good for almost all, barring a few, in a traditional sense. That is because on raw metrics of performance and targets, almost everyone has fallen behind owing to the time lost in lockdown and the resultant restrictions having impacted mobility of people in general. Also, many self-employed have seen their businesses shuttered or severely impacted and salaried have seen salary cuts in many cases. For professionals not affected by either, the annual performance appraisals have been underwhelming. All this is painful of course, especially in the short term. Now one must be wondering, this is exactly why it has been a pathetic year professionally. Work from home isolated people from their colleagues and work environment but allowed them a chance to explore the fullest potential of their productivity in the quiet and comfort of their homes. Personally, I feel way more focused when working from home in the absence of the constant distraction of office chatter and gossip. Everyone living in a city would admit that commute ate away precious time of the day doing nothing and were amongst the most unproductive and frustrating time of the day. With traffic in our cities continuously increasing, commute had begun to eat into a more and more substantial chunk of one’s day. Now that time became free this year with control with oneself as to how to allocate that time. Enjoy tea and snacks with family or have a meaningful discussion or read something meaningful or learn a new skill or start a hobby at home like cooking or just lay on the couch watching Netflix!. 

The pandemic induced mobility constraints have changed the ground realities for many companies. Many companies have realized that maybe WFH is indeed a better option to get work done and at the same time cut down on fixed costs and overheads for setting up and maintaining office spaces. People have collaborated virtually like never before and redundancies in many of the processes have been realized and consequently improvised. In many ways, I think 2020 will be the year that people will remember as a watershed year for digitalization wherein the digital movement truly transcended the realm of discussion forums into the realities of the workplace. This is the year when tech driven digital industries like fintech, ecommerce, OTTs and cloud computing actually got a trailer of how the world could look like in the future and they got an inkling of the humongous potential for their growth. The people who fear their jobs are at the risk of being automated, could study the emergence of such new megatrends and try and gain skill sets to be considered for those segments. This has been a year where most professionals have been taught the value and the imperative of upskilling. Uncertainties have been very high in almost every workplace during the pandemic and most people have seen the proverbial axe hanging over their positions. Many people have lost their jobs, and many have suffered pay cuts. All this has been painful, but it has been a reminder and lesson, especially for my generation, to understand the value and importance of saving and investing money wisely to keep reserves for that rainy day. The influx of new investors into the equity markets has been tremendous and this would go a long way in making our country financially savvy and make the equity markets deeper and add to its liquidity over the long term. 

Attitudes would have defined how people would have viewed the year gone by. And that is true for everything and every situation in life. Whether you want to crib about the wet muddy roads after the rain or enjoy the nice weather and admire the beautiful rainbow, is something that we all choose sub-consciously on a daily basis. This year was no different. For me personally, 2020 was blissful. I have read many good books this year, watched quality OTT content, learnt a couple of new skills, gained some diversified knowledge about some interesting topics, developed keen interest in the process of gardening, got shockingly good and efficient at household chores, started amateur singing as a hobby and pastime, learnt new recipes to cook and most importantly spent some memorable quality time with my family. I have re-strategized my personal finance strategy in my quest for developing an all-weather financial portfolio. After almost 11 years, spent an entire year at home. If one told me that this would happen sometime last year, my inference would have been that it would be a boring year, especially after all the travelling and moving around I had been doing in the preceding decade. But being at home for an entire year has surprised me so pleasantly. It has been wonderful getting to know my home, my kitchen and felt surprisingly good. It has been great rejigging my home décor here and there and more importantly understanding the priorities in life. I found mental peace at home and staying at one place felt stable and calming. It freed up time and filtered outside noise to push me to devote time to all the activities on the personal front which I highlighted above. More importantly I realized a clear demarcation between my wants and needs and have contemplated to understand some of the pitfalls of being too materialistic. In short, priorities in life have been set straight.

I am sure I am not the only person in this world who benefitted on a deeply personal level or on a professional scale due to the restrictions we were put through in 2020, owing to the pandemic. As we draw close to the end of a dramatic and eventful 2020, I wish and pray that people reflect on this year and look at the positive impacts on their lives and cherish this year for the positives and move to 2021 with renewed vigor for life, hope and optimism. Let us all vow flip the narrative and not let the pandemic define 2020. Let us remember the year in a way so that we draw strength, resilience and hope, whenever we look back at the year. Let us all truly feel and believe that 2020 was a tough coach that changed our lives and our mindsets for good in many ways. Let us all remember to thank 2020 for the contributions it made in shaping us and our beliefs whenever we remember it. Our attitude shapes our destiny after all!. On to an even better and fulfilling 2021!.