2020, A Reflection

“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and so gorgeous at the end.” – Robin Sharma

As we near the end of one of the most extraordinary years many of us have experienced in our lifetime, I wanted to take the time to reflect.

A year ago, I was heading to Thailand to spend Christmas in Phuket. The idea was to get away from it all after the toughest year of my life following the sudden death of my Mum in April. Little did I know whilst I was on my vacation that what I had gone through in 2019 was going to help me cope with what was to come our way in 2020!

I saw in the new year watching fireworks, and hugging friends and family. We all wore smiling faces filled with the glow of possibility and ready to start a new year, and a new decade.

I watched the news in January and started to hear about a virus in China but went about my day not really giving it too much thought. It felt so far away.

And then February arrived, along with the constant news coverage and daily rises in the numbers of cases, and fear and panic started to set in across the world. A welcome distraction came into our lives around the same time and our rescue cat settled into its new home with ease.

March became the month of adjustment. Schools closed, employees were told to work from home, non-essential shops closed, air travel ground to a halt. We were reminded how to wash our hands, and asked to keep our distance from each other, only 2 metres mind you. Lives changed overnight.

So many of us said this will all be over by the summer….

March, April, May and some of June was spent mostly indoors. New routines created, new habits formed, lots of Netflix watched. Zoom became a household name. Thank goodness for our lively rescue cat. He kept us entertained!

July and August, the summer I’ll always remember, but not in the usual way of flying off to epic destinations. Instead, I’ll remember it for becoming slightly obsessed with The Walking Dead, buying fashion face masks and missing my family and friends in the UK.

September arrived along with no sign of an end to the pandemic. We got used to our face mask wearing, and the saying, ‘have you got your mask?’ was heard regularly, when leaving home.

October and November, for some of us a sense of ‘normality’ felt like it had returned. Flight paths reopened, visiting restaurants didn’t feel so unnerving, lots of people returned to their place of work and in some parts of the world, you’d have been excused for almost forgetting there was a virus around, until the numbers were mentioned again.

December the vaccines arrive and start to bring us hope that the tide has turned. But then announcements are heard from various countries that set us back and remind us that we’ve got a long way to go.

As a human race we have become connected to each other like never before, knowing that any one of us can carry a virus that took over the world in 2020. We have had an opportunity to look inwards and reflect on our lives. To recharge our mind, body and soul. To refocus our energies on what is most important to us.

But did we? We have seen wonderful acts of kindness around the world, but also total inconsideration, with shops being emptied and nothing being left for the vulnerable in society. We reinvented the way we studied and worked by going fully online, yet many industries have struggled to keep going.

As we enter 2021, we are reaching a seminal moment in our lives. One where we still have a choice, even when things might seem completely out of our control. Are we going to let the past year make us into victims or do we want to be the butterfly that comes out of its chrysalis and become the change in our lives, needed to create a better now?

If you feel it’s time for a change in your life or career, or if you are going through changes that are tough to navigate and would like some support and guidance as we enter into the new year, please do contact me or Miracles Dubai for a free consultation.