This is the newsletter sent out to my mailing list at the start of January 2021. If any of these topics interest you and you’d like me to go more in-depth, let me know!
This past year has been horrible on a global scale, but the way it has impacted communities and individuals has differed greatly. Some people have faced utter devastation while others have found professional and personal success. While the major factors here are differences in privilege that existed even before the pandemic began, there is also a factor of personal flexibility that we can choose to improve upon.
Because as much as we’d like to be able to say this is a once-in-a-lifetime event and that things will now “return to normal,” I think we have to admit that “normal” is what got us here in the first place and we’ll either have to face immense change, or suffer through more years like 2020.
Becoming more flexible or adaptable is not only about reacting to unfortunate circumstances and emergencies, it’s also about being able to respond to opportunity. The more prepared we are to make changes in our lives, the more easily we can jump onto whatever passing opportunity matches our preferences. But for that, we’ll also need to know exactly what those preferences and criteria are. Luckily, there is one practice that can help improve both our flexibility and our knowledge of our own desires and criteria.
Regular reflection and self-review is one of the most powerful tools I’ve found in the last several years, and it becomes even more powerful once we truly understand what it’s capable of, and can design the practice to fit our needs.
In my short series on Balance Within Chaos, I talk about the reflection process and about creating support systems that are ready for change at the drop of a hat. These practices will help you become a more flexible thinker, and reduce the stress you experience when something inevitably doesn’t go according to plan.
Read the first part of Balance Within Chaos here.
The way we mark our years may be arbitrary on the astronomical scale, but that doesn’t mean the energy and hope that comes with it is meaningless. Why not make use of that energy to make a few changes so that next year can be better than the last?
Photo by Elisha Terada on Unsplash