Bye-bye 2021, hello…well not so fast!
Hi again! My name is 2020 and I am here to ask you to bear with me a tad. I am not quite yet ready to let go of you, almost there, but not yet, a bit of unfinished business to discuss with you first.
When I showed up 2 years ago, most of you were still operating on auto-pilot. Still doing the same things, over and over again, because, hey, why fix something that is not broken, right? Except that you didn’t know that hitting that snooze button was not really helping you either. To be fair, how could you?. All was same old same old, blah.
My ides of March 2020 were your wake up call. I came to shake your tree of beliefs and blindspots.
And tada!
What you thought was another year of cozying up with ‘business as usual’ ended up being a year that every single one of you will remember for a long long time.
Let me explain: I came with my lot of challenges and losses – and gave you the opportunity to see things differently … call me a redirection if you’d like.
So now that you are leaving 2021, I want to hear from you where you are at, 2 years after what many of you called me ‘unprecedented times’.
Let’s chat!
2020 says: ‘I came here bearing gifts to prepare you for your next steps’
True, I wasn’t an easy year; there was so much loss and destruction that sometimes one needs several years of hindsight to be able to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.
Yet at that rock bottom place, you found you were more resilient than you could have ever imagined. You found the courage to sit back and observe how the world as you knew it, fast and furious, was brought to a halt.
And what did you do? You wept, you grieved, you got up again and ultimately learned how to adapt.
That was my main message to you: ‘Find your courage inside of you’.
You listened, I am proud of you!
2020 says: ‘I asked you to get out of your bubble’
It didn’t take you too long to understand that you couldn’t do it alone the way you used. In your forced retreat, you understood that you needed to be connected to the world.
And so you did. With the gift of modern technology, you started collaborating with each other from across the globe; you saw injustices and made your voices heard.
It wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows.
But many of you took a hard look at how you were conducting your lives, your careers and your businesses. You started seeing the wisdom in the integration of both – because you are one person, with many hats juggling too many functions.
It was time for you to understand your priorities and get a better grip on what you want your life to be.
2020 says: ‘I made you uncomfortable on purpose’
Yeah, because when sitting too comfortably becomes really uncomfortable, yet, resisting the change is your favorite sport.
So I pushed you outside your safe little box.
I asked you to come with different ways of doing what you did. To take a closer look at what you are bringing to the job, to your relationships, to the world – your legacy; and decide, with discernment, what works for you and what doesn’t anymore.
I made you sit in that place of in-between, where so many possibilities exist and yet, nothing happens until you decide you are ready, inside and outside, to take your next steps.
Let me add one last thing: I gave you more than you could handle, I know that.
And you know what? you took an honest look at yourself, you tried to correct your ways the best you could – and you over-delivered.
I now say thank you, mission accomplished? 2021, what do you say?
2021 says: ‘I helped you understand your uniqueness’
When 2020 was the year of let’s shake and shock, 2021 was an invitation to digest, assimilate and finally integrate. For many, it felt like a year of coming home: closer to your value system, to what makes your heart sing, to make more conscious choices, and to walk your talk.
As we are now closing this year, I invite you to go down those 12 months of memory lane – grab a piece of paper and acknowledge:
- Your milestones
- Your challenges
- What you learned about yourself
- What you commit to not doing anymore
- And how you decide to allow yourself to be and to feel for the coming years
Finally, as you are waving goodbye to 2021, a final question: if you were to give 2021 a name, what would it be?
2021 was a year of [hints: acceptance, transformation, compassion, kindness, boundaries,…]
Coaching Executives