2020: The Year of Reflection, Resilience, Self-Care, and Reawakening

5 Days to go for the year 2021, with Christmas done and dusted, Birthday and New Year’s Eve creeping closer, it’s perfect time to pause and reflect on the year gone. After all, 2020 has been an interesting year to say the least. To find meaning in this meaningful Pandemic year it’s important to reflect on the lessons learned and look at my goals for 2021.

The year did not turn out the way we expected it would. No one expected humanity to be hit by pandemic. Lockdown, quarantine, self-care, mental health, resilience became the buzzwords of the year 2020.Work, Virtual world and my therapist took my entire bandwidth and mindshare 🙂

Year started with some bonding time with my Dad which had been a rare occurrence in my life. Took part in Sneh Lata walk with your parents with Dad. It was a good opportunity to bond with him and buy peace with him. Well, the peace didn’t last long. But at least I did make the efforts 😉

Winters were harsh, the month of January teased and tested me like never before. I bravely chugged along with guidance from my seniors in faith. Coughed my way to February with headache and anxiety becoming my new friends. My Mom’s approaching first death anniversary made February a challenging month to survive. When things couldn’t get worse, God conjured magic and brought me to the door of a therapist to fix me up 😉

Let me describe my therapist by sharing and twisting the following lyrics from the song Dhakkad (Dangal movie)

Saree pehan ke aaya cyclone (She is obsessed with sarees and red colour in particular)

Laga ke phone bataa de sabko

Bachke rahiyo baghad billi se

Noida se ya Delhi se

Tanne charo khane chitt kar degi (You think you are smarter than her, she has surprises up her sleeves, she will checkmate you and you won’t even know what has hit you)

Tere purje fit kar degi(After 15 odd sessions I can safely say she did fix me up, looks like all my nut and bolts are in place and aligned )

Dat kar degi tere daanv se badh ke

Pench palat kar degi

Chitt kar degi, chitt kar degi

Aisi dhaakad hai, dhakad hai…..

Tere akad ki rassi jal jayegi(She so sweetly showed me the mirror)

Pakad mein iski aag hai

Yo inchi tape se naapegi

Teri kitni unchi naak hai

Teri saansein atak jaayegi (haaah)

Woh jor patak jaayegi (kasam se)

You can love her or hate her, but she will not leave you till the mission is accomplished. Finally, I felt there was an end to my misery and there was a hope. There was light at the end of the tunnel…. someone was hand holding me, pushing me gently to face my own feelings and emotions, making me become better version of myself and empowering me with life tools just in case she is not around 😉 We met by chance, but by year end we have sealed the deal by signing lifelong contract. With a therapist I got a friend free. Year 2020 was not that bad in that sense 🙂

Pandemic, resultant lockdown, Franklin fiasco became a blip in the year 2020.Year 2020 for me became a life transforming year, year of growth, year when I took giant strides. I remember in April wondering where the first few months had gone, and now as the year is coming to an end, I can’t quite believe how quickly it’s flown by, but also how much has happened in a year that was something I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams.

Business took a hit, Dad came out Covid positive, I ran my first 5k, my baby SBS Fin turned 10. The list of all the new things I did post lockdown is long and endless. Year 2020 turned out to be year of personal achievements, life milestones. Year 2020 had all the necessary ingredients of Bollywood potboiler, packed with drama, sadness, happiness, joy small and big, noteworthy moments worth remembering. Year in which I spread joy, hope and happiness to commemorate my Mom’s 75th Birth Anniversary. This year I would have probably made Darwin proud. My mantra this year was all about my personal evolution, adapt or perish.

Summing up Year my 2020 in Rapid Fire Q&A format 😊

1. What is the most important lesson you learned this year? Post lockdown witnessed mother nature making a comeback. My learning from nature was, to slow down and look at life from a different filter and lens.

2.What is the best thing that happened? Encountering therapy and my therapist. Reawakening to regeneration of my health, shifting from fixed to growth-oriented mindset.

3. What challenges did you overcome? Anxiety and sleep issues, Covid 19, Business set back

4. What new skills did you learn?

Flexibility/Adaptability. Learn to manage multiple assignments at the same time and being flexible enough to work under ever changing conditions and environment.

5. What did you do for your career growth? Invested in upskilling myself and thinking of increasing my revenue streams by becoming Professional Certified Organizer

6.What did you enjoy the most? Doodling and making bookmarks

7. What was your favorite moment? My first 5k run on 18th Oct 2020

8. How did you have fun? Zoom video chats with friends

9. What new habits did you start? Morning  routine and Evening unwinding ritual

10. What are you the proudest of this year? My blog post on Self-care for Personal Finance Experts getting published and getting good reviews from my peer group

11. What did you learn about yourself? I have everything inside me.

12.  How did you live by your core values? Persevere, with everything ,life threw at me this year and emerged victorious

13.  How did your relationships (family, friends, work) evolve? I was able to deepen my relationships with people in my environment

14.  What was the best decision you took? Investing in therapy

15.  How did you fail? I failed number of times in trying to achieve zero to 5km in running. The no 1 reason was my issues with consistency

16.  What got in the way of your success? My own thoughts and narratives I had been feeding my mind with.

17.  What would you do differently if you could? Not much as this year I totally revamped myself

18.  How are you different than a year ago? I am much more happy, joyful and hopeful

19.  What did you do for your physical and mental health? Joined a running mentoring program, trying to be consistent with my workouts. Invested time, money and energy towards my mental health

20.  Who or what had the biggest impact on your life this year? My therapist made the biggest impact on my life.

21.  What did you let go of? Past baggage, hurt and grudges against my Dad

22.  What were the most useful resources you had? Tools my therapist empowered me with. Self-care tool kit, resilience plan..

23.  What are you thankful for this year? For the life God has given me. Being born as a human is a blessing.

24.  What did you leave unfinished? My evolution is WIP, will continue in 2021

25.  What was the best compliment you received? I am glowing, looking sharp and focused.

26.  If you were to talk about this year like a story, how would you write it? Like many I was looking forward to year 2020, inspired by 2020-the theme of 2020 vision and start of fresh decade, new chance to start afresh once more, And then Covid happened…

27.  How do you describe this year in 3 to 5 keywords? Heallacious, bizarre and unprecedented 

28.  What energized you? what drained you? Doodling energized me and my therapy assignments literally drained me.

29.  How kind were you to yourself? I took mini breaks without feeling guilty. Took a week off and checked into a luxury chain to recharge myself.

30.  What advice would you give your last-year self? 2019 was practice year for what life was unfolding for me,2020 was warm up and 2021 will be MY YEAR

My Goals for 2021

1.Reboot

I want to feel my best, be the best version of self, my most confident self and look my best as I turn 44. I want to put myself first more and really take the time I deserve to look after myself, to exercise, to eat well and be mindful.

I have struggled with my ‘health’ and prioritizing my wellbeing in the last 4-5 years. My work, responsibility as caregiver took over all my bandwidth. In a way I have taken baby steps towards this goal in Year 2020 itself. Looking forward to building upon the foundation.

I really want 2021 to be the year I create and maintain good habits, increase my fitness levels, and look after myself more. My aim is to be consistent with my Run and Bee training and graduate to 10km running. In addition, aiming for 3-minute plank,150 squats,100 push ups daily.

Increase my savings and investments by 20%. What has been done in the past can’t be undone. Time to focus on present and future.

2.Renovations

This time next year I would love to be living in my newly renovated room, reading books and sipping red wine, completing all the work I had been planning and dreaming of for the last 15 years.

3.Upskilling

Thanks to my therapist encouragement, looking to build upon my strengths and use them for generating revenue.

Goal 1: To become a certified Professional Organizer

Goal 2: Polish my skills for coaching Solopreneurs and take this as a side hustle.

Year 2020 was most challenging for the humanity. Each one of us had our moments of self-reflection, reawakening, realizations. A calm, thoughtful and a logical mind, is the first step towards success and satisfying life.

Therapy taught me my thoughts convert to words, decisions, and actions. I should be careful as to what I am feeding to my mind. Following self-reflections, comes resilience. Like a Sailor’s resilience in a stormy sea to reach the shore, one must look for avenues and tools, to create pathways and keep moving forward. Look for a solution-centric, far-sighted approach to situations and life will make our LIFE journey easier.

Let us march forward to the year 2021 with hope and determination, rejoice the simple pleasures and joys life has to offer. Let us celebrate and live each day as we would our birthdays. And most of all, let us be humble, (that is the biggest lesson for humanity ,the pandemic has taught us) and bow our heads with gratitude, to the creator.

Wishing Everyone a Happy 2021,year of Hope.

 I would love to hear your highlights & goals for the year ahead. Leave them in the comments below