It’s Friday, so I’m linking up with Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five. I keep going back and forth on 2020 being the worst year ever to being an opportunity to slow down, reflect and reconnect. I’ll admit, I’ve learned a lot about myself through the pandemic and social unrest. In March, I wrote this post about “silver linings.” That was only 2 weeks into the pandemic and cancellations. I stand by those comments but the extended “stay at home order and social unrest have added a few more layers.
Five Things I’ve Learned About Myself in 2020
I don’t want things to “go back to normal.” As much as I miss traveling, socializing and running with friends and seeing family, I don’t want everything to go back to exactly how it was before the pandemic shut downs. Like many people, I was over-scheduled and juggled too many things at once. As much as I enjoyed my trips, races and events, I was more likely to forget things, make mistakes and not fully appreciate experiences. When the world opens again, I want to keep up my rekindled connections and to make more time for the things that really to matter to me. I’m going to say “no” more to things that don’t serve me.
I’m resilient. I guess we’re all pretty resilient as we’re pushing through the pandemic, experiencing social uprising all over the country and learning more about Black Lives Matter and anti-racism. That said, as a social being, I’m proud of myself for keeping it together as the “stay at home” time extended and I had to stay indoors more than I’d like. For every “bad” day, I had a surprising number of good days.
I still have a lot to learn but that shouldn’t keep me from trying. There are many new things I’ve tried, started or learned about during the time at home – and more recently regarding anti-racism. For a long time, I stuck with things I’m good at or have mastered. I’m proud of a variety of things I’ve tried in the last few months – cooking new foods and recipes, starting to learn Spanish, working on a newsletter for my building to share resources to support elderly residents and using my social platform to amplify other voices. I’m getting better at cooking but I still struggle with Spanish.
I’m a rule follower and am too complacent. I’m kind of a do-bie sometimes. I follow the “rules” and fall into the “that’s the way things are” trap. If this time of reflection and unrest has done anything for me, it’s recharged my desire to ask “does it have to be that way?” or “what else can I try or offer if that didn’t work?” I’ve already suggested new ideas at work and in a few other spaces and it feels great.
I’m lucky to have a good pandemic partner. The Husband and I have been together more days in a row this year than in the 22 years we’ve been together. The good news is that we’ve had a surprising amount of fun times and laughs amid all of the stress. I can still count on one hand the number of arguments we’ve had and they’ve been about pretty trivial things. We do a lot of things separately and have very different interests. It’s fun to see there are many things we like to do together. We’ve also been eating together and talking more. Good stuff.
What have you learned about yourself in the last few months? Do you want to go back to “normal?”
Have a great weekend!
PS. Don’t forget my great giveaways!