When I first thought I had published this post, we were still a few hours off closing the last day of last year. 2020 – another year in your wild and precious life. Ha! But now time, in one second, has ticked us over the edge into a new year. Still, I’m dead curious (probably not the best word to use given the general situation, but it’s coming to mind so I’m going with it). Dead curious – what did you get from last year?
- What did 2020 reveal about YOU?
- What courage and creativity did it bring out in you?
- How have you evolved because of this year in your life?
Have you even asked yourself these questions yet? If not – go ahead! I’ll wait patiently here a few minutes while you do! Take your time. They are important. Pull the questions close towards you and peer deeply into them.
So much virtual ink has flowed to describe 2020 as a year we wanted to have over and done with… hoping that 2021 would bring salvation. Slam the door on asap. Well – lucky us! 2021 arrived in the blink of an eye and the tick of a clock at midnight. What miraculously changed for you in that fateful second?
We could argue whether the year 2020 was negative or positive, over a bottle of champagne preferably. And we would eventually come to the same thing. For some, you perhaps, there were very sad events. For others, there weren’t. You experienced the events of this year through your own personal filters just like you have every other year.
And, if you choose to look with a more discerning and discriminating eye, this year, like all the rest, had highs and lows, positives and negatives. Some of which we won’t even be able to identify until further down the track, because we make sense of our experience by retrospectively connecting the dots.
Yes! I have felt – and retreated as much as possible from – the heavy weight of a world population that knitted its eyebrows in a collective frown, and hunched its shoulders in ‘brace brace’ (Ok – I too have missed flying this year) in fear and worry.
Yes! I have tired of the unprecedented use of the word unprecedented and pivoted away from the word pivot. Yes – I have even worried. Briefly. Very briefly. I don’t have the luxury of having the time to worry so I actively choose not to. Worrying is such an unproductive and disempowering waste of time that I go to great extents to shift myself to more generative states. I’d rather spend my time generating solutions and creating new possibility – it’s easier on my wrinkles.
In all this, what is ultimately true, is that this was another year of your life. And you are still here. Living. You could not do the same things in the same way. You were faced with more unknown than you were used to recognizing. But it was not one monotonous flat line of bad news (unless you watch too much television). It had a variety, even in lockdown. It had highs and lows. Moments to cherish! Revelations of many colours. It was a year – rich and diverse! And…
… Like every year that has ever been and that ever will be (as long as we both shall live and long after)…
- It provided multiple opportunities for you to stand in your leadership and be courageous – did you take them?
- It provided opportunities for you to lead with care, love and support. How have you measured up with that on a scale of 1-10?
- It provided opportunities for you to connect authentically and know yourself and others on a whole new level. What do you know now about connection that you didn’t know a year ago?
- It provided opportunities for you to create, to commit, to contribute and to collaborate….
- It provided you in every second, the opportunity to grow, to learn, to create and to be fully alive.
Just like 2021 is going to do.
Yesterday, only 24 hours ago, I closed my screen to go prepare a celebration. Not a celebration for leaving one (insert your adjective here: awful, catastrophic, sad, hard….) year behind in hope of something better. Oh no. Events are events and we have never controlled those. There will be more next year. And hope is not a strategy. It’s an active way of showing up in the world. Because the hope lies in each one of us in what we choose to do with events.
Yesterday, we simply prepared a ritual celebration of life. Of symbolically closing one door and opening another. Conscious of the new opportunity calling us to step into leadership excellence, ramp up our senses of humour and improve our capacity to identify, create and act on possibility
Are you with me?
Happy New Year to your Wild Spirit! May it bring you all the opportunities to step into your best self.
Love, prosperity, health and success – however you measure that – to you.
Much love,
Angela
P.S. If you want a fantastic, uplifting way to complete 2020 and continue into 2021 with grace, receptivity and power you can share my ritual. I’ve written it up into a booklet of reflective questions and exercises to open your mind to greater possibility. You can download it here (Sorry – you’ll have to add your email in again it’s part of the system)
