1. Change Illuminates Character.
At the beginning of this year, I said that those who will succeed the most this decade will adopt a "role-model mindset." They would enter this decade ready for challenge, ready to serve, ready to remain open and kind, ready to push themselves to be the best. For some people, that was just New Year's hype. For others, for the dedicated few, the role-model mindset kept them humble, compassionate, centered, and leading throughout a tough year of pandemic, politics, quarantines, fear, misinformation, advancement, hope, renewal -- all those opportunities and challenges that this year was made of. How we handle change and challenge reveals who we really are. To those who stayed true to your character, optimistic through the dark times, disciplined when it was easy to hide and wait, loving to family who disagreed, enthusiastic about making this year a test of your best -- I see you, I recognize you, I honor you. You showed us what's possible.
2. Judge Less, Feel Better.
A mantra I began years ago, and taught at the outset of the pandemic, seems such a huge lesson this year. The more you judged "the other side" and those who thought differently than you, the more you lived in a year of condemnation, cancelling, outrage, anger, vitriol, tribalism. If you learned to simply allow other people to have their opinions, and didn't feel the need to dominate others with your values or beliefs, and learned to observe and think and communicate without losing your emotional center or compassion, the better you felt. Lose your center, feel awful. Don't judge (yourself or others) harshly, quickly, unfairly, obliviously, and you just feel better. Yep, I learned this more and more as the year went on too. Some will judge this entire email: "you sound like you are all about self-reliance and self-discipline and don't realize how hard a year this was. People struggled. Depression, loss, fear. These things were hard - don't judge us for not being awesome to our families or keeping our health (next point), feeling confident (point 4 below), or for building/investing when it's scary (point 5)." Don't worry - no judgment over here at all. I just know what people are truly capable of because I get to see transformation every day. No downward judgment, all upward pull and cheer.
3. Family & Health First.
There's no explanation needed on this. The better direction here is, "How'd you do?" Did you call them? Did you honor them? Did you workout? Did you optimize your health to position yourself stronger and healthier in a pandemic? Whatever your answer, be even more intentional and disciplined in 2021, and don't be hard on yourself about this year (see Point #2).
4. Confidence Matters.
Confidence is the belief in one's ability to figure things out. Did you enter each day ready to figure things out, or did you tell yourself that you can't? Your answer to that single question probably set the reality and progress of your year. I spent much of my year with my private clients - already capable and smart and caring people - just getting them back to confidence. Reminder: Nothing "out there" gives you confidence.
5. Build and Invest When Everyone Waits.
A lot of people got to work this year while everyone else drowned in pools of pessimism. A lot of people kept building while everyone hid their fears by jumping into more seasons on Netflix. A lot of people waited... and waited... and waited. Others invested when the chips were down, worked when others retired to the couch. Yes, it was a hard year for all. Some took that as an opportunity.
6. Community Matters.
Speaking of my new Mastermind, I can say that *all* of my past masterminds, friendship groups, and communities of friends from grade school until today REALLY MATTERED this year. If you made friendship a priority through life, then this year was so much more sufferable and yes, enjoyable. Outside of the health of my family, the number one thing I'm thankful for this year is my friendships that kept me feeling like things would be okay. Love you guys.
7. Leaders Show Up.
There were a lot of corporate high-fliers and "social media stars" in 2019 who disappeared in 2020 when the tough road began. (Again, see point #2, because we have no idea why that happened for them, and it's not a judgment against them, it's a celebration of those who were there). This year, I was amazed at all of you leading out there. I also re-read biographies of Churchill, King, Mandela, and a total of 11 leadership books. That perspective reminds me just how lucky and easy many of us have it, and just how remarkable people can be when it's time to rise, unite and serve.
8. Primary Aspiration Theory is not a theory, it's a Law.
If you've studied my work, you know my model of Being, Relating, Creating, and Growing--the 4 primary aspirations. These are what bring us aliveness and authenticity, connection and caring, contribution and fulfilment, and enrichment and excellence and expansion. The thing is: if you didn't work super hard to have harmony between all 4 this year -- harmony as defined as you tried in these areas and balanced their vibe to your liking -- then it was a super tough year.
9. Wellness + Productivity Habits MATTER.
50-minute breaks. Meditation, excercise, diet, sleep, supplements. High Performance Planner. 5 major moves and prolific quality output. All those productivity hacks from my Coaching program - these things saved the day for ME. I can't imagine this year without these practices.
10. Knowing Matters.
People looked *outside* of themselves too much this year, hoping to get signals for how to be, who to be, what to think, how to feel. People say beware the difference between signal and noise without any understanding of or reverence for “knowing.” They say find the desired signal through all that noise; I say find your soul. The signals you desire do not come from without; and the real effort of mastery is to tune out the signals and orchestrate a higher harmony altogether. We spend much of our lives chasing, consuming and listening to the wrong signals. The “desired” signals most people look for are external—popularity, power, profit, position. They are wide-eyed and open-eared and pleading for anything, anything, amid all those conversations and comments and judgments that might, somehow please, meet their feverish need for belonging and acceptance and control. “Let me forget the haters and non-believers and hardships—that noise!—and find the signal that says I am enough,” they say. But maturity and strength are found in letting go of the constant search for those old and youthful desired signals—from caring little about society’s “important” signals and noise and direction and sound. The power resides not just in receiving and perceiving the signals and noise in new ways; the real power is in knowing, in listening to your own sound above it all, to the hopes and the dreams and the fires of the soul. You are not a receiver of signals anymore; you are a creator, a symphony conductor. You are tuned in. You are harmonizing something within that is receiving no noise, no signals from outside, something no one else can ever send or see or know or hear. Go within and listen and tune and feel and amplify and scale that—there is no anxious terror there that you are missing something, no, there is just beautiful and unique sound there, there is wisdom there, there is fire and life there.
These things I learned and re-learned this year, as it was a big wild year for me over here, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment