Let’s get this out there: 2020 sucked. A lot.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready for a fresh start. There are no guarantees 2021 will necessarily be better, but there’s something to be said for a clean slate.
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, I don’t do them. Why make empty promises I’m not sure I can keep? Life happens. Commitments get broken, sometimes because we made the wrong ones and sometimes because of circumstances. How many of us thought we’d be able to do things in 2020 and ended up canceling our plans?
It’s a natural human thing to want this year to be different from last year and to list everything we want to change about ourselves and/or our situations. If that works for you, keep on going. Many people love having longer-term goals. In fact, there are plenty of people who believe that even if it doesn’t fully come to fruition, it’s still worth it to put in the effort. I think that’s awesome, and I would never want to tell those folks to do something different.
But for those of us who routinely feel as if we’ve failed if we don’t lose weight, get a new job, become a better person, find love, buy our dream house...well, maybe it’s time we stopped worrying so much about it. If 2020 showed us anything, it’s that we simply can’t predict the future all that well.
This might be a good year for us to think less about our plans and goals and dreams for the upcoming year and more about what we can do each day to get through and to care for each other. There are still hard times ahead, and the end of 2020 doesn’t mean flipping a switch so the world is set right in an instant.
There’s been a lot of devastation in the past year and a lot of heartache. What will I do, and what will you do, to help make the next year better for all of us? May we each find new ways to bring light and life to one another throughout 2021 and beyond.