As I bid good-bye to 2020

As we bid good-bye to this historical year 2020, I wanted to pen down some of my learnings from this year.

 

Firstly, it was a year of penance for all the new year resolutions you had been cheating on for the past years. In case you wanted to lose pounds, eat healthier, breathe more, become fitter, connect with your maker, engage with the family more, be an interested participant in your kids’ education, DIY, give to thy neighbors, spare the environment, introspect and meditate, cut the spending on needless shopping, traveling, entertainment etc.…you get the drift  Karma and payback are real. If you have not done any of the above in 2020, well, you missed the bus.

 

Secondly, those who had always felt that going digital, gadgets, technology and robots were only for the elite, or the nerds, had another think coming. Digital is here to stay, and you better upskill and embrace it as a way of life.

 

Thirdly, it is possible to study, work, get a medical checkup, attend various classes, celebrate festivals, birthday parties, reunions, play games, attend conferences & events, even host virtual exhibitions and enjoy global cuisines from your own home.

 

But what I was most impressed with were the below two lessons –

1.    The buck stops with you
2.     It all depends on how well you manage time

 

2020 saw a lot of our support system falling apart abruptly. Whether it’s the freedom to roam around freely, the dependence on domestic help, beauty parlors, gymnasiums, physiotherapy sessions, our friendly grocer, dhobi, autowala, cabbie, even television channels, newspapers, cinemas, chit-chat groups, family doctor etc. We had to really depend on ourselves most of the time for a lot of our necessities. Sometimes people we depended on in our families, or at work, were not around to shelter us and we had to make do without them. We had to tap into our inner reserves of strength and resilience. And we saw the effect of it immediately too – a haircut gone wrong, a recipe messed up, muscle injuries through unnatural bending or stretching during cleaning, acidity or other health issues due to eating what we liked all the time etc. We learned that we cannot blame anyone else for all of these boo boos anymore – its upto us and unless we improve, things will not.

 

The lesson on time was the toughest one-

 

If you are in quarantine by yourself, well too much time on hand is depressing. If, however, you have a super busy workday AND have to do chores at home OR time-slice the computer or broadband with other members of your family – well you better plan well! How to squeeze all of it into a teeny-weeny 24-hour day was a daily challenge.

 

If you lost your job, time spent in searching and waiting for the next one was a painful and stressful process. If you are retired, unoccupied or your work is not WFH-friendly, then whiling away the time at home without the usual sources of distraction was sometimes suicidal. And then there were those who were waiting for the time to be right to migrate to some place, tie the knot, start their family, end their relationship, start their graduate education, etc. For them, waiting for things to happen in “divine time” was learned prematurely. For some, their bodies degenerated before time and for others, it’s as if the aging process slowed down.

 

For me, the most precious learning is that there is no beating or cheating Time. It is the most important asset and there is simply no way to expand or contract it at our convenience. A healthy respect for this precious asset is what determines our success and happiness eventually. It is not important to fill every slot in our day to manage time better. It is most essential to leave some empty slots too to recuperate, build resilience and grow. Time is finite; and once gone, it can never be recovered. So, it’s critical to make the most of it, create and document memories and help others manage it too. After all, our happiness depends on those around us.