Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
It may seem late in the year to be talking about making a New Year’s resolution, but with the recent Covid-19 lockdown and plenty of time for soul searching, now is the perfect time to make one for 2020 if you haven’t already.
One year my friends and I, who gathered on New Year’s Eve, were pondering what diet, exercise regime or self improvement goal we could set. After midnight on a long distance call, a friend in London came up with this. “I’m going to get to know Paris really well,” she said.
That’s got to be the best ever New Year’s resolution we thought at the other end on the phone. Why are we beating ourselves up?
In subsequent years this has led to more creative and enjoyable goals like ‘Find my favourite chardonnay’, and the genius ‘keep breathing’ which has been met and renewed on an annual basis, and will last the resolver through to his final year. What I like about this resolution is that there is a realisation that we don’t know when that final year is, and therefore there is an urgency to embrace what life has to offer.
Lockdown Resolutions
If you didn’t get around to those resolutions this year you get another chance, another New Year, as we emerge from lockdown.
I acknowledge that the lockdown experience has been different for everyone and especially difficult for those who are coping with illness, loss of income or redundancy. However, there is a general feeling that people have enjoyed family time and found pleasure in the more simple things in life. Flour was sold out as people returned to baking, the air cleared of pollution as we worked from home, and the roads were reclaimed for walking and cycling.
There has been a lot of talk about a ‘reset’ – how we have this amazing opportunity to do things differently. As Julio Vincent Gumbuto says in his article Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting, “This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud.”
There is a silver lining and we need to grab it with two hands. The creativity, the compassion, the values.
What from this experience do you want to hold on to?
Make your lockdown resolutions.
My New Year’s Resolution
I did actually make my 2020 resolution in January. Here it is:
Try 5 new things I have never done before.
I have ticked the first of my new things off my list. You may be able to guess what it is. Yes! Start a blog!
The next two I had lined up before we went into lockdown. One was postponed until later in the year, and the other one I might be able to do soon. I’ll keep you updated as I tick things off. I’m really hoping that ‘Spend 7 weeks locked down at home’ doesn’t end up counting for one thing, although technically I have never done that before, so it could.
And in the spirit of ‘reset’, I might just add a lockdown-inspired thing or two to my list of new experiences.
References
Julio Vincent Gambuto Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting
Heather Ogden-Handa
Good to meet you! I’m a marketer and writer interested in aging and longevity. I see lots of great information out there, so I’m keen to share topics that take my interest. Over time I hope the knowledge and community around this blog will have a positive impact on the healthy lifestyles of many individuals.