November 18, 2020
Hello,
I hope you are all having a fabulous week! Great news, I got married this week! Due to COVID, we decided to marry sooner and have our wedding when it is safe to bring everybody together to celebrate. We are still on cloud nine in our household, but alas, work still needs to get done.
I have seen discussions lately about how we are at the end of 2020 and how great that is because we can get past this year. It would be nice if that were true, but our lives are not defined by a year, in all honesty. Some of the hardships we are facing now will continue into 2021, as will some joys. Time is not a box. It isn’t going to fold neatly into 2020 and placed on the shelf. I will say that there has been a lot of hardship. Lately, it’s been tough for many, and your emotions about it all are valid. I’m also going to say that it is a disservice to ourselves when we think of everything as a 2020 problem. Not only because we don’t take action, but also because we get ourselves into a cycle of “it’s a bad year,” and I’m not sure about you, but I do not want to be in the place for the next two months. So, what can we do to get out of this mindset and keep moving things forward?
One. Stop waiting to take action. I encourage this every year, do not get caught up in the New Years’ resolutions, the “I’ll start next week,” the “after the holidays” dialogue. If there is something you would like to do, start today. Small steps forward, that’s all that matters.
Two. Find your gratitude. In the time that things have been rough, there have also been silver linings. Let go of the dreadful thinking and find what you are grateful for.
Three. Drop the “time” constraint. Stop thinking about time as a neat little box, it isn’t one, and we can’t control it to be that way. Drop the thoughts about it being a bad year, drop the expectations of how long something is supposed to take, and drop the narrative of how far behind you are on something.
The one thing we know about time is it will pass. We give it a lot of power for something that is always constant. Make the decisions now, do what is best for you, and continue making those decisions every day. Don’t wait for a better year to come along, because honestly, we say the same thing about every year. Maybe next year will be better. If we never change, the years continue to be the same. All that’s changed is the number.
p.s. Zoom yoga on Mondays is a go (I’m not planning on getting married again, so that won’t get in the way), and Facebook live yoga on Wednesdays is still on the calendar, both at 6 pm Central time. I hope to see you there!