2020 has not been a great year for most people. Who knew that would be grappling with a global pandemic that would disrupt every aspect of our lives? This kind of stuff only seems to happen in horror movies.
Despite all the craziness, I must admit that 2020 has been one of the best years I’ve had in a long time. I’ll probably put it down to two things. First, 2019 was a great year and therefore I stepped into 2020 with a good foundation. Second, the disruptions and change in lifestyle resulting from COVID have forced me to evaluate my life and make drastic changes. In this article, I would love to share the habits, mindsets and actions that helped me get through 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a year of massive mindset shifts that have helped me simplify my life and approach situations very differently. Some of the shifts include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My faith in God has always been a big pillar in life since I decided to be a follower of Christ 22 years ago. I’m certainly not the perfect Christian. I don’t read my bible every day and to be honest, I don’t pray as much as I would like. I’ve also had seasons in my life where I’ve questioned the very essence of my faith. This year I’ve really upped my learning game. It’s not like I was not a good learner but I seem to unlock a whole new level of curiosity. The more I learn the more I realise how little I know. On a typical week, I go through an audiobook, a minimum of 10 podcast episodes, lots of Youtube videos and blog post read. For a long time, my fitness journey has been one big yoyo. One time I’m consistent then life changes happen and my focus and commitment is derailed. This year I decided to end to the crazy cycles. I invested in a personal training and joined a gym during one of the busiest seasons of my life. I’m also hiking once a week and have started working on my dieting. The second half of the year has been extremely busy with juggling a full time job, a side hustle, being a first time dad and this writing thing. There is no way I would have been able to get through the demanding commitments if my health and especially physical fitness was not in good shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When things are tough is when you need your loved on the most. This pandemic really highlighted the value of family an thank God my family has risen to the occasion to be such a great support system. While it’s been invaluable having a great family to lean on, having good friends, acquaintances and a strong\u00a0 extended support system has made life so much easier. Sometimes when you are going through some hard times, it’s refreshing to know that you are not the only one going through the same experience. I used to be sceptical about self-care for a long time until I found myself in a dark space. My self-esteem and confidence were in tatters and I could not just “man up” or “snap out of it”. I had to take time to build my confidence brick by brick and learn to really look after myself so I don’t end up in the same hole. Driven by the need to get more done and knowing that parenthood was going to add significant time pressure to my life, I decided to start learning more about productivity.
There is something special about being able to say a prayer and not just believe but feel that you’ve been heard. You can now let go off what was weighing you down and move on to the next challenge. It’s like having a big weight off your shoulder.
The other element of my faith that I find quite liberating is understanding the art of surrender. The more I try to control my life and orchestrate every situation, the more I realise that I’m not fully in control. God holds the whole world (Psalm 95:4<\/a>) and promises that he has great plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11<\/a>). Some times my desires do not always line up with God’s plans for me and that’s ok. Things always work out in the end. The more I learn to surrender I ask God for his help, guidance and perspective on things, the more I operate in his favour rather than just grinding it out. Phew, it’s less exhausting.
This year, I also challenged myself to go deeper in my faith. I did this by volunteering in church for positions that would involve leading a team or co-ordinating things. I knew the responsibility would force me to step up my game and put more focus on my spiritual walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n3.Supercharging my learning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If I’m curious about a topic, I’ll google it and follow the rabbit holes until I’m able to deconstruct the fundamentals and understand how it works. The beautiful thing is that I’m not just consuming knowledge, I’m taking lots of notes and connecting the dots between the things I’m learning.\u00a0 The net effect of this has been a growth in my skills and confidence…after all, confidence comes from learning and lots practise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n4.Focus on my health and fitness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rather than take on a project based approach to fitness, I’m taking a long term view with full understanding that this will take time . I’ve broken down the process in different stages so I can master one element of the journey at a time before moving onto the next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n5.Family<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This year I became a first-time dad which has completely changed my life. I have a new level of appreciation for my wife. I’ve really enjoyed watching our little boy grow and start to develop his own little personality. I’ll have to say that having a baby has made our marriage stronger since shifting the focus from just the two of us to this little human being we’ve created leaves no room for fretting the small stuff. I’ve had to cut back on any other social commitments. If I’m not working or working out, you’ll probably find me with my little family.
When the pandemic started, we started a Zoom group within our extended family in order to minimise isolation and support each other. This Zoom group quickly turned into a weekly family catch up and fellowship session. This has allowed us to bond more as a larger family and get to know each other more intimately. There has been soo much personal growth within members of the larger family who attend the Zoom catch ups as we break down generational barriers and fellowship with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n6.Friends, acquaintances and extended support system<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This year I made an effort to purposefully connect with friends and also grow my support system by joining a peer mastermind group. Part of my growth plan for next year will be set up a peer mentor group where I can invite like-minded friends who are in the same growth trajectory and want to support each other as well as keep each other accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n7.Self care<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the last couple of years, I have started taking self-care more seriously and this year I decided to step things up and add more practises to my self-care toolkit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this still requires ongoing practise, I’m learning to be more present and control my internal chatter. I tried meditation but was not very consistent. The few times I’ve meditated I feel more peaceful and grounded.<\/li>
While I have not been consistent, I the last 3 months I’ve experimented with different forms of journaling and I’m finding it a great way to bring perspective to the day, make sure I’m on track of my goals and capture memories along the way.<\/li>
They say ignorance is bliss. I get easily triggered by negativity and it ends up sending my mind into turmoil. The best strategy I’ve found is to limit the source of negativity. I quit watching normal TV in 2019 and this year I continued to stay away from TV and news. I’m not completely oblivious on what is happening in the world, every week I browse the news for a few minutes and in most cases, I’m always surprised that I’ve not missed out on anything other than the emotional rollercoaster.
I also severely limited my social media consumption by blocking social media off my phone. I deleted half my Facebook connections then blocked the timeline feature. When I go on Facebook, the most I can do is message people or participate in group discussions. No mindless scrolling and getting triggered by rubbish posts. If you want totally piece of mind, install a Chrome extension called News Feed Eradicator for Facebook<\/a> and restrict yourself to only using Facebook from your desktop.<\/li>
I have high standards and expectations of myself but with time I discovered that I do judge myself very harshly. Of late, I’m learning to be more patient and kind to myself.\u00a0 This means:8.Embracing productivity as a way of life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year I enrolled in Tiago Forte<\/a>‘s Building A Second Brain course<\/a>. This course was life-changing in terms of understanding how to deal with information overwhelm, get more productive and create more. It’s in doing this course that I rekindled my life for writing. Behind this blog <\/a>is a whole bunch of systems and process that go into making the whole process enjoyable and sustainable.
I’ve delved deeper into the world of productivity and you’ll probably see more from me as I learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n9.Writing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n