It’s just taken me about 14 days to write this blog post. It’s been open and chipped away at for two weeks. Every time I start, I stop. Or lose my trail of thought. Or you know, find something else to do. Doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year, considering I was thinking I should have ‘focus’ as my word for the year.
Like the rest of the world I kind of knew everything wouldn’t magically get better when the calendar flicked over to 2021, but damn weren’t we all HOPING it would. Speaking of calendars, if you need to save some cash you can reuse an old 2010 as the days and dates finally line up. Dig through those old desk drawers.
It’s easy to focus on what a shit-show 2020 was. Fires, floods, plague, COVID, isolation, loneliness, online uni group work. COVID has been awful. People are sick, dying and fighting over the last roll of toilet paper and can of spam. We’ve seen the worst in humanity and let’s face it ourselves. Face masks are not a good look on anyone. At the post office this morning (wearing a cap, sunnies and face mask) I got called “gentleman” as in “let the gentleman go first”. Note to self: I really need to pluck my 4 stubborn neck pube/chin hairs. COVID needs to go.
However, what if instead of focusing on the bad news and mental toughness that 2020 brought with it what if we look for the slight tiny pieces of good news and celebrate:
- Trump won’t be President for the next 4 years.
- People are starting to recognise the climate crisis, it’s getting some momentum. There has been a big acceleration in countries and businesses making climate commitments.
- Africa is now free of polio.
- More people turned to health, vegetable gardening, and prioritising family time.
- People showed empathy, a sense of community.
- We collectively S-L-O-W-E-D down a bit.
- We explored our neighbourhoods and went on holidays in our own states.
- Workers are getting the job done even at home. Business continued efficiently, productively and with higher engagement.
Personally, I reached my goal of a full half study load, if that makes sense – 4 subjects completed with distinction. I even managed to not lose my shit at group work online. Fun fact: I loathe group work. For one subject this year I was sitting on 92% (well into high distinction territory), but after a group assignment that got 55% I ended up just scraping into the bottom end of a distinction. I could write a whole post separately on it. My goals for this year are the same to complete 4 subjects, give myself a break, stop hating myself so much and try to focus.
What are your goals or plans for this year?
