Thank you and (no) thank you, 2020
This Blue Monday last year I looked ahead at 2020 with open eyes and I gawked at the yellow brick road yet to be explored. I had already known that I would leave my corporate cocoon to flourish as an entrepreneur but it was not yet announced, and so 2020 held a secret just for me. And then 2020 morphed into the 2020 we all came to know.
The Pandemic came along and with it, a collective "oh no.." and "why?" And like so many other people, I developed a new relationship to 2020. I just wanted to get through it as an intact and healthy human being with intact and healthy friends and family.
It's because of this Pandemic experience that I won't attempt to look a head at the unfolding path of 2021 nor create any concrete goals for myself.
Instead I'm taking a moment for some gratitude for what 2020 did bring and an acknowledgement of some of the mud and guts it also brought with it.
Thank you 2020...
- Thank you for keeping my family and friends healthy and (relatively) sane.
- Thank you for the weekly conversations with other entrepreneurs and learning from their resiliency. For the stamina to finish a 12 episode web-series and the knowledge that if I do that again, it will be in podcast form.
- Thank you for my new-found community of storytellers where we support each other through failures and successes, processes and rewards. I've never felt more part of a team than I do with this group of people even on days when we're all struggling and strained and human.
- Thank you for teaching me acceptance of what is and continuing to teach me to accept what I experience and feel. I've learned that the future is not mine to try to control. And it's important to honour the place of judgement that arises when I'm not 'perfect' or things don't work out as planned.
- Thank you for the abundance that has flowed through the year. That despite starting a business during a pandemic and then announcing 'I'm taking a sabbatical,' opportunities and projects have continued to flow and cascade into 2021.
- Thank you for bringing me closer to people than I have been in years. The virtual world as frustrating as it can be has shortened the distance between myself and the other. More doors have opened for re-connecting and catching up.
- Thank you for educating me by helping me listen better to other people and their stories. To not first judge or look for the argument but remain attentive to what is really being said and being open to a more supportive dialogue.
- And thank you for the opportunity to trust my own words and for meeting myself at the bottom of the U.
(No) thank you 2020...
- No thank you to pandemics
- No thank you to divisiveness
- No thank you to ignorance and hate
- No thank you to the struggles and insecurity
- No thank you to the lack of hugs
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Although 2021 has already begun, we're still feeling the effects of 2020 and we may be stuck in this year of thank you's and (no) thank you's for quite some time.
So in an effort to keep it simple, my only plan for 2021 is to continue to do what I've already been doing. So I wish the same for you - the entrepreneurs, the freelancers, the managers and co-workers around the globe:
May your 2021 be filled with more thank you's than (no) thank you's and may you continue to do what you've already been doing because that's enough.