Like most people, in late December I found myself looking forward to saying adios to 2020 and ringing in a new calendar year.
So now that it’s mid-January: how is 2021 playing out for ya so far?
🙁 The first Monday of the year a friend of mine called to say that some high winds blew a tree over and damaged her fence, and ‘now already 2021 sucks just as bad as 2020’.
😲 We weren’t a full week into the new year before our country experienced civic unrest that caught international attention. Afterwards, comments from reporters and in social media carried a common sentiment about how ‘it didn’t bode well for our country for 2021’.
😢 This morning a delivery guy told me how one of his friends died from a heart attack last week, so ‘already all the bad luck from 2020 is spilling over into this year’.
Not to minimize his loss, by any means. But the reality of life is that the events of 2020 had nothing to do with his friend’s passing, or the fallen tree, or (for the most part) what happened in D.C. last week.
Nor does it indicate that the rest of this calendar year will give us the same number or intensity of stress and challenges that last year did.
While a new calendar year gives us a reason to adopt an emotional clean slate that gives us hope and helps us see what’s possible, it won’t shield us from challenges.
Life will still hand them to us willingly, no matter what.
Some years will be more challenging than others. We have no control over most of it.
But what we can always control is our emotions and how we react to the circumstances in our lives.
Reacting to life’s challenges by sitting in negativity and frustration blocks us from seeing what is good in our lives (and there is always good in our lives). From seeing what’s possible. And from experiencing the level of joy that’s available to us.
And it leaves us feeling like victims.
We always have the option to react by deciding to process any negative emotions, then move on from them, giving your positive emotions equal time.
Focusing on our positive emotions keeps us from feeling held back by the things that we can not control. Instead, it helps us see what’s possible for us in the coming year.
And to enjoy what we already have in our lives, right now.
A year from now, how do you want to look back and describe 2021?
You can decide that right now.
Just decide.
P.S. If the challenges of 2020 are still leaving you feeling stuck, maybe it’s time to put them behind you for good by investing in life coaching. New calendar year or not, we’re still living through a lot of the same challenges, and will be for a few more months. Get the help you can use to sail past it all now by scheduling a free 30-minute coaching call. Click here to schedule yours.