Reflecting on 2020 and how I have grown

It would be so easy to get to this point in the year and rush to move on. The desire to push this crazy year into the past is tempting. I see that sentiment in so many places. I understand it but I don’t want to take part in it. We can miss the significance, the growth and the lessons if we relegate 2020 to the rubbish pile. An interview I was part of and a planning for 2021 exercise I am doing with my mastermind group has had me reflecting on 2020.   

I knew from the beginning that 2020 was going to be huge in my life. A new leadership role and leaving my workplace of 10 years guaranteed that. Then you add in all that this year has brought. Plans were cancelled or delayed. Goals set had to be changed. Emotions and strength tested to their limits. I don’t want to gloss over the pain and hard moments this year has contained. And yet, they do not define 2020 for me.

This is the year that I had the courage to launch into my own business with my family supporting me every step of the way. It is when I got to try out new things and take people along on the journey. I have learned that I am capable of so much more than I give myself credit for- more strength, more growth, more mistakes and learning, more rest and more connection. Moments of avoidance have not completely derailed me. I bounce back. I am emerging from this year with refined courage, strength and many bruises!

It would be easy for me to focus on times when I haven’t been the person I want to be. In fact, that’s all I was focusing on for many days recently. We can be so quick to criticise ourselves and see only the flaws. While identifying areas for growth and being self-aware is good, allowing that to pull us down is not. Sometimes it takes stepping back and looking at the year as a whole to see the fuller picture.

I get emotional looking back and reflecting on 2020. What challenges there have been but, oh, what growth there has been too. The best part is that it isn’t even over yet. I want to milk all that I can out of these waning days of the year. I will be using these next few weeks to write and reflect on how I have gone with my 2020 manifesto. This will include reflection questions that you can use in your own life too. Let’s find a perspective on this year that will propel us to grow and thrive.