This post is an all text post to archive my thoughts on the infamous year that 2020 has been. Its my way of letting things go so I can move on to the next year with fresh perspective.
This post was supposed to publish on 1st Jan2021 and here we are!
The beginning of 2020!
I started 2020 on a slow note, I took the last two months of 2019 off from work, so getting back to work after a two month break was kind of slow. I published a blog post on Jan 1st 2020 on how I go about planning the year, you can read Planning 2020, it holds good for any other year. I had a vision in mind for 2020, however looking back, I wasn’t utterly enthusiastic about it. Someone who is always raring to go, did not even buy a year planner, which is quite strange for me, maybe my sub-conscious could foresee the disaster. Anyway, we all know what happened to the year, so no amount of planning could have prepared any one of us for that.
The Lessons!
This post isn’t for whining about all the things that went wrong, but to acknowledge the outcome of that. 2020 set me free in so many ways, it brought me face to face with who I am and what I want in life. It fixed my direction in the right path. It taught me(the hard way) to invest my time, energy, emotion and money where its appreciated and acknowledged. It taught me that any relationship that is not a two way street is not worth my time. It taught me (again the hard way) to set boundaries. It made me realize that I am a “all or nothing” kind of person. I wont do something, be somewhere or be pushed into anything that I don’t want to do with all my heart. It reinstated that my joy, happiness and peace comes from within and is not dependent on anything external. Life is too short to waste time in mediocrity. Its also the reason why my close circle is very trimmed and I love each one of them to bits.
In conclusion the growth in 2020 has been exponential for me, inside and outside. For me the definition of success is to be able to do what you love doing, earn a comfortable living out of it, and be recognized and appreciated for the work that you do. 2020 made me realize that I have fulfilled my definition of success and that is what matters.
I am also grateful for the fact that all of the people that I love and care about are safe. Even though I haven’t hugged my mom in nine months, and I cant go to see her whenever I want to, I am grateful that she is around. I have mourned for every single person I knew who lost a parent, coz this year its just hitting you differently. I was going through my social media feed and came across a post where someone i have never interacted with before was announcing that she lost her mom, and I had to put my phone aside and cry for a bit. I lost my aunt in august and it took me a whole month to recover from it.
The lock down was a kind of revelation too. We fill our lives with so many things and so many of them don’t matter at all. I realized it takes so little to be happy. I dint miss going out, i dint miss eating out, I dint mind being holed up in the house (except for the annoying times when the neighbors were making annoying noises and one lady yelling at her son all the time). We had some trouble getting veggies in the first two weeks, but apart from that it was kind of a smooth ride cooking cleaning and DIY’ing. The last part was actually what kept me going. When I am happy I take refuge in work, when I am sad I take refuge in work, when I am stressed I take refuge in work.
After the initial strict lock downs, once we came to know that its not over and things are not getting to normal any sooner, I started to get stressed with the uncertainty of it all. I had just started off on a project when the lock down hit, and since a lot of my regular people had gone back to their villages, I had to work with new people and that is a lot more stressful because I was dealing with unknown devils.
The move!
Since the house we were staying in wasn’t working for us, we made the bold decision of moving in the middle of a pandemic. We had very little natural light in the main floor. Shooting audio and video was such a nightmare, I was always dependent on the natural light timing and recording audio when the neighbors children were not screaming. Once I was in the middle of a workshop with 45 participants and the vegetable guy decided to park him van exactly in front of our gate and scream his lungs out. Once of the participants actually asked me what was selling.(And i am talking into a high quality background noise cancelling mic!)
The move actually turned out to be the best thing and the highlight of 2020. We found an amazing guy who helped us move. Started at 10,30 in the morning, since it wasn’t too far away from where we stayed, they moved in 3 loads in a smaller vehicle. I had my furniture come in the first and place where i wanted them to be. Next came the kitchen and then clothes and other bags. We only brought what we wanted and needed and they helped unpack, set up and clean up the packing material. By the time it was 6.30 pm, the kitchen was set up, carpets rolled out and art hung on the nails that were already there. We were settled on day one.
Moving from a home that was dark into one that was bright and airy, the feeling is indescribable. I wake up every morning feeling grateful for the light. For two entrepreneurs who were 90% of the time working, being holed up in the house for months was kind of fun too. Initially I thought its going to be crazy, two fire signs under one roof all the time. But surprisingly we got along so well. I never had a “Gosh! I cant deal with this man anymore kind of situation”! You know what I mean?
All is well that ends well.
In the end it was a year that gave me plenty to be grateful for. I had my first worldwide viral DIY, got my first hundred thousand followers, some of the shots from a builders 2021 calendar were shot in my project, I fully recognized that I was making a positive impact in the lives of so many people and I SURVIVED the year. Cheers to the new year!
P.S. While I started this post in the last week of December, I am finishing and publishing it today 15th Jan 2021 and I can tell you that the year has gotten off to a great start already.
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