How many times have you said the phrase Hindsight 2020? I know I use it all the time, even before the year 2020!
If I knew then, what I know now, life would be a lot different!
But this year, somehow it is so much more poignant. Who knew last December what was in store for us in just a few short months.
One of the habits I learned in coaching school, way back when, was to create a vision for myself for each year. I would spend time crafting the vision and then I would tape it to the top shelf of my work desk and this way I could see it often and reflect on how I was doing and adjust if need be. I actually still have my visions from 2018 and 2019 hanging up….
Well, needless to say, 2020’s vision didn’t quite come out the way I had penned it back in the beginning of last year. Instead of completing all of the goals on my list, I completed different, new and unexpected goals.
What I didn’t expect to achieve this year, although it was on my long term list of goals for about a few years down the line, was to achieve my next level of coaching credentialing which would require 500 accumulated coaching hours. Yet, with the pandemic and my larger workload, I did! I was over 500 hours and counting, as of December! So I applied and have just been approved as a PCC (Professional Certified Coach) level of credentialing! I am super excited a) because I achieved an awesome milestone in my coaching career and b) for the unexpectedness of the achievement this year!
I am a big planner by nature. I always have been and have spoken often about it on these pages. Visions are really important. They allow you to aim for something more than you already are. In life you are either going up or down. There is no such thing as the status quo. Therefore, always having a goal and something to strive for keeps you alive and invigorates you. If you stop planning, what are you doing?
Obviously there is the time it takes to do the steps to reach the goal, but even that is a plan in and of itself on how to achieve those mini goals.
Life is all about the next big goal and where you want to go. In my 2020 vision, I had lots of goals and some were met and others were frozen in a time warp called the COVID 19 Pandemic. But amidst the craziness a different goal was realized. And although some of my goals were frozen, rendering them pretty much dead in the water, others were accelerated and pushed ahead by a few years! I know some of you may be thinking you feel like you aged a few years in 2020.
Hindsight 2020, I think I gained a few years and now I can get to my next goal that much faster. I wouldn’t have dreamed it so soon, but I dared to dream it at all.
There were definitely a lot of challenges and hardships this year, but I like to focus on the positive and what I would like to say made me a better person because of COVID 19.
Someone told me recently that when things go back to normal, whatever that is, they would like to forget the pandemic.
But can you forget the pandemic? Do you even want to forget the pandemic?
Every challenge that you go through in life, challenges you to grow and develop. We don’t ask for these challenges, but they come our way to make us stronger and better. The pandemic was a challenge like no other. Everyone was affected, throughout the world.
Forevermore, your life will have changed because of the pandemic. Everything in your life going forward will be colored by the pandemic. We can easily focus on all of the negativity of the pandemic. There certainly was plenty of it. But like most things in my life, I like to focus on the positive, if I can.
This pandemic challenged me to reach out and connect more with my family, with my community, with my spirituality and with nature. I have learned so much during this year through the power of Positivity, Connection and Community. This was the other PCC I gained this year that has made me a better and stronger person than I was last year.
What PCC did you gain this year? What’s your hindsight 2020?