Well, the good news is, if you are reading this, you have survived 2020. It was a very, very tough year for all of us. Many of us were deeply affected by all that happened in 2020; racial injustice and social upheaval, Covid completely ravaging whole swaths of our communities, suffering the isolation of a seemingly never ending quarantine, and a political earthquake that threatened to rip apart the fabric of our nation. I think history will look back on this time as one of the most cataclysmic years in our history. 2020 was a hell of a year. And as it drew to a close, most of us who survived it couldn’t help but fantasize about how 2021 would be different.
It makes sense that we would focus on how the new year would be different for us, and also how we would be different in the new year. Resolutions are a staple at the end of every year, and if there were ever a reason to be resolved about creating a new you in a new year, 2020 gave us plenty. But focusing on change is tricky. By putting so much intention into being “different”, we take our eyes off of what we have done well. We look away from what we have managed successfully and shift our eyes to what we want more. Our vision blurs for what we have attained as we laser beam focus on what we want to attain. Many of us find ourselves thinking “new year, new me!”, and for many of us, that feeling has never been stronger.
But perhaps as we contemplate what is to come in this new year, we can think about not just what we will do differently, but also what of ourselves we will carry forward. 2020 required all of our strength, resilience, and coping mechanisms. To get here, we have used the best of ourselves to pull us through. And as we think about what is to come, let’s commit some energy to reflecting on the strength we developed in 2020 and carrying that with us into 2021. So in this new year let’s make this resolution: new year, same you! After all, it’s the you you’ve always been that has gotten you this far. There’s no need to leave that person behind now.
Chrysallis Counseling 