2020 - Top 10 Lessons
~ 10 minute read time ~
Here we are nearly done with this infamous year. Before we rush to midnight to get it out of the way, we should stop, reflect and sift through the mud to find the gold.
What are the potential lessons we can extract from this year, after all, it was just another 365 days wasn’t it?
In no particular order, here are 10 things we may have learned that will enable us to thrive into 2021 and onwards:
“Change is the only constant in life.” - Heraclitus
When faced with certain grim realities, it really focuses your mind on what is, and isn’t, important. Hopefully you will have gained clarity and learned much more about yourself than in previous years? What is it that makes you really tick?
Play with the cards that you’re dealt. Many external things were closed or taken away, did you flip out or did you make the best with the cards that you had?
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” - Woody Allen
Get out of the way of yourself. Stop trying to control the uncontrollable, you’ll only suffer. Step back and let life flow.
2020 taught us that trying to impose our own will on things outside of our control will always lead to disappointment. Essentially, be ok with not knowing what’s going to happen - JUST BE.
There is no such thing as normal, there are approx. 7.2 billion people on this planet, each trying the best they can with what they’ve got. That is 7.2 billion versions of ‘normal’. ‘Normal’ is merely a narrow measure on a graph. JUST DO YOU (as long as you’re not a serial killer).
If you’re suffering, try and deal with your pain. Seek help, there is always someone to speak to and willing to listen. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Write down your fears, give them a name, de-mystify them by verbalising and they’ll lose their hold over you. Writing down your fears allows you to gain a sense of control, you can plan to address them and tick them off. Fears are stories our minds tell us to keep us safe, except they’re mostly completely untrue!
People can hold differing opinions to you and you can still be friends. The whole ‘cancel culture’ is unhelpful and polarising. Celebrate our similarities, you’ll find many - don’t waste time arguing about our differences! There is more that unites us than divides.
Re-connect with yourself, become your own best friend. Stop looking for validation from others, create it and live it for yourself. You do not need permission to live the life you want.
All you need is less. In our materialistic culture, we acquire more stuff and there is always that drive and bias towards getting more, making more, doing more but it gets us… weighed down, heavy and poorer for it. If in doubt, simplify. Be grateful for what you have, it’s all borrowed anyway - it can be taken away at a moment’s notice.
“Far better to live your own life imperfectly than another’s perfectly.”
See you in 2021.
Love
LP x
