2020 was a year.
COVID, as well as many other circumstances in life, are burned into our lives. Like a branding iron seared onto a cattle, it won’t be easy to forget the changes, difficulties, and pains we’ve experienced in 2020.
Fortunately, we don’t need to let this year define us.
Like many of the roller coasters we’ve experienced in life, we can look at this year and gain some important takeaways from it.
A time of perspective. A time of awareness. A time of unintentional mask cosplaying.
Maybe for some of y’all, there was a breakthrough.
You had your Shakespeare moment (the man wrote King Lear during a quarantine).
Or you became a genius in a field like Isaac Newton (this guy laid down the foundations for calculus while in isolation).
Or maybe, more realistically, you did some soul searching and realized what was important to you. Realizing you were heading in the wrong direction in life, you pivoted instead to start your own underwater basket weaving class (as we all should strive for).
Jokes aside, regardless of the takeaways, it is a reminder that the life we’re living isn’t constrained to the storms a year brings.
Life is not a finite game, where a loss in a year means a loss for the rest of our life. (though sometimes, it may feel that way)
Rather, it is an infinite game where we are not be tied down by a single outcome in our lives and can continue to learn & grow.
Simon Sinek, a British-American optimist, and inspirational speaker wrote a book about this, called “The Infinite Game”.
In it, he shares how companies who play with a finite mindset play to win out their competition or the economy, believing that once they win the “game”, there is no more winning necessary.
But the companies who play with an infinite mindset recognize the “game” cannot be won — there is no end, and so they shift their mindset from winning to aiming for long-lasting change.
This translates to our daily life.
Though on earth, we have a finite lifespan, we can live with an infinite mindset.
Rather than letting a hit knock us down for life, we can roll with the punches life gives us.
2020’s boxing match may have felt like a one-sided beat down, but we have learned our limits, learned to live in limits, and learned even more about our old emotions through new experiences.
We can carry these learnings to 2021 and beyond.
Let’s wipe away the sweat after the beating 2020 gave us, and look forward to the fight that 2021 has to offer.
I guarantee, with careful planning and an infinite mindset, you can throw the first solid punch at the new year. (and maybe get a K.O.)
Questions to ponder: 🤔
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Do you have a finite or infinite mindset towards life?
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How will you be proactive and throw the first punch for the new year?