The unbearable lightness of being

We cannot really escape can we? At the end of the day, when it is just us and our decision-making tools, not much else matters. Why am I saying this? It is my way of counting down to 2023 and counting 2022 out. How may decisions did we take? How many wrong ones? How many correct ones? Did we pay A price? Did we pay THE price? Are we going to? Did the past twelve months render our decision-making skills sharper?

Is our December version of being an improved one compared to January's version?

That is my basic question - are 12 months enough to improve on this? or are we all a lost cause. Learning and evolving are so often used in conversation at management level - but how painful are they? Is it a matter of training? Or a matter of mindset? I realize that all these question marks probably reveal my desire to talk - and also reveal my ignorance on so many things surrounding personal growth and setting personal growth targets even. It is a very exciting conversation to have. And as a matter of fact I do believe that evolving is painful - after all Nature gave itself billions of years - are we simply expected to get on with it in under a decade or so ? I think not. And if we are expected to show something for our years of effort please understand that it will be bloody and challenging and often questionable. But it is also inevitable - is it not? Why else would we let time wash over us if not to show morsels of wisdom for it?

We make decisions all the time. I know I do - even writing this as my last article of the year is a decision; but it is one I almost cannot escape.

I guess as I welcome 2023, I do hope it turns out to be a chance to evolve for all of us - I really do, but I also hope we learn to put up with ourselves and be slightly kinder to us and then to others. Both sides of the same coin in so many ways. There is a very tangible possibility that December version of me is more or less the same as January version but with slightly more grey hair. Oh and a growing obsession with growing up - getting old, ageing, maturing / call it what you want. But this is the basic premise of the entire learning and evolving process is it not? We have no choice - we really cannot escape. Because evolving is a constant; it is not a question. Are we learning ? I think we are and that is why both combined are painful. Time does not stand still and neither do we, even if we keep making the same mistakes. But at some point, we are intended to use this accumulated experience to learn - to train our internal algorithm to judge and assess and choose a different path .

So let us decide what January version will look like and let us envision what December 2023 might look like. Let us be healthy enough to actually be there to make the comparison, joyous enough to forget to carry it out altogether, and wise enough to comprehend its meaning if we do.