You've Come Farther Than You Think

Do you guys remember January? Remember how we all had plans and goals and dreams? 2020 has been a roller coaster and we’re barely even half way through. It somehow feels like it has been five years all compressed into 6 months.

I’m sure many of you can relate to this when I say my brain is currently suffering from massive quarantine fatigue. I miss having places to go. I miss being able to make long term travel plans. I miss all the people I should’ve seen in person on trips I was supposed to have taken by now. I miss not relying disproportionately on like four people for all of my in person interactions. I miss options. I miss not having an unyielding anxiety regarding the unknown and feeling that the entire country is constantly on the the bring of collapse.

However, although the year has taken a decided turn for the worse since we started it, I wanted to do a bit of reflection on the positive. Because this year would be a real easy year to get caught up in the negative. Since the year has started, I have accomplished the following:

Traveled to LA
Traveled to Lake Tahoe for the first time
Went to the opera for the first time
Studied, tested, and received my AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification
Studied, tested, and received my Project Management Professional Certification*
Read 26 Books for pleasure (yes, I’m ahead of schedule!)*
Started a new client/project and provided substantial thought leadership for the first time*
Went to the drive-in movie theater for the first time*
I’ve done 30 days without Alcohol
I completely revamped my blog site on a new platform*
I have almost finished completely sorting what was originally over 40k photos*
Started therapy
I’ve done 30 days of mobility training*
Started formal nutritionist appointments*
Caught up with old friends that I haven’t talked to in many years*

I starred all the things I accomplished after quarantine officially started in Chicago. About half have been accomplished with all this craziness going on! With something like quarantine in place, it can be so easy to feel like you’re stuck. Like you’re not moving at all, no progress is being made and that nothing is happening. But life is still happening. Although it feels like a lull, time has not stopped, we are still aging, and events are still occurring (albeit much differently than before).

It is important to reflect every so often, even if you don’t think you’re going to find anything, you might surprise yourself. This exercise is the same as progress photos for a fitness challenge. Day to day may feel the same, but when you take a look at the past month or the past several months, you can start to see all the movement that has happened.

And don’t even get me started on the world. The BLM movement is pulling off some seriously big accomplishments that might not have been possible without the current environment. Communities really pulled together during Coronavirus layoffs and there are tons of stories about businesses and neighbors helping each other out to make it through. There’s still a ton of negative weaved through here, but what’s important to recognize is that’s not ALL there is, and that there is hope and light and joy still to be found in our lives.

So I encourage you to take a bit of time and look at the past 6 months or so. Maybe you ran a really fun remote event at work that you’re proud of, or maybe you’re proud of marching in the recent protests, maybe you’ve started working out more regularly, or getting enough sleep finally. Whatever your accomplishments, make sure you recognize them, and give credit to your progress, we all deserve that, especially when it feels like there’s only so much positivity to go around some days.