Fourteen days ago I declared my own personal New Years. Even if the calendar didn’t agree I mentally and emotionally moved into 2021.
I began in earnest to do all the things that one does to start anew. Remove the clutter that had built up over the last year. Take care of some projects that I’d let languish. Take stock of the good and the bad in the year of the Rat and what I could bring forward into the year of the Ox. Look over my plans and see what would be best to make happen in this year.
Most of all it felt good to start a bit fresh. To blow off the stink of this monumental year. Undoubtedly, there will be plenty of trials and tribulations in this year as well. Some numbers changing on the calendar isn’t going to instantly change the world.
It can, however, change our outlook.
Many people were blindsided by the events of 2020. The pandemic grabbed ahold and didn’t let go. Survival mode became the name of the game. And most hunkered down and waited for this to pass.
The difference now is that we are coming out the other side. We’ve already endured. We know what to expect. And while things could get worse in some ways over the next few months – we are more resilient than we were a year ago. Many of the people I speak to in my coaching sessions don’t even fully realize it, but they are stronger than they were a year ago. More battered and bruised perhaps. But ultimately they are better equipped to handle what comes their way next.
Now, as I sit on this first day of the new year and the calendar has finally caught up to what I had already self proclaimed, I am optimistic. I feel a sense of responsibility to stand tall and not be a victim to circumstance.
As a child who grew up poor, on the outskirts of society, who was misunderstood and made fun of, I resolved myself to not let the outside world tell me who I could be and to not let the hand I was dealt dictate how I would show up in the world. It is a lesson that took a lifetime to understand and one that still has a great deal of relevance for me now.
The world won’t change immediately because of a switch on the calendar.
We can approach each day as one that is building on the last, where each day we learn more, invest in our personal development, help and be there for others, and continually adjust how we look at each day. Seeing each day from a lens of each day being better than the last because we are choosing to show up better than the last.
I’ll do my part. I’m going to show up every day.
Doesn’t matter if each day isn’t the best. Doesn’t matter if some of those days are going to really suck. What matters is that I’m going to suit up, do my best, and try to help as best as I can, as many as I can.
We will fight the good fight with positivity, respect for others, and show up with civility in order to accomplish more and build a better future for all those who come next.
Are you with me?
This is our time. We can do better. We will do better. And we need more voices in the room. Not yelling and screaming. But voices that want to listen as much as they want to be heard.
I for one am going to give it my all.
Let your voice sing in this new year. And we can do something amazing together.
Development Geek 