2020 is the year that was so different to how any of us imagined it would be. My plan for the year was to enjoy my new job, learn to drive, get a car and save towards buying our house. All pretty big goals!
The covid-19 pandemic clearly had other ideas for us all and it’s been a year of ups, downs and just general not knowing what is going on!
I think the words that spring to mind for me when I think of 2020: adapt, persevere, realisation and gratefulness.
Adapt– We all learned to adapt to new ways of living daily life, rules changing at the drop of a hat. Many of us worked from home, something I was already doing and love! I really hope many businesses see the benefits of remote working beyond the pandemic.
Persevere– So many times I thought “why?” in 2020. “Just keep going” became a motto. It was the year I found out just how much grit I have, with challenge after challenge coming our way. I never thought I’d spend months unemployed and basically become a housewife but as I’ve learned, these times won’t last forever and just try and take the positives from it all. Some days just felt like they went on for a week but March also feels like yesterday? Time really hasn’t made sense in 2020, very Groundhog Day.
Realisation– 2020 I think was there to make us realise A LOT. I realised I’m far more resilient than I give myself credit for, that I can offer more than I thought I can and that I matter more to people than I thought. I also ended up spending far less than in previous years and it got me thinking about my shopping habits and things I used to think were necessities. Even the odd luxury I’d enjoy, I didn’t really miss them that much! I’m quite an introvert, I like being at home and in all honesty wanted to work from home anyway so when I got sent to work from home before furlough and then eventually redundancy, I was quite happy. I also realised that perhaps I’m pursuing the wrong career path, and have been making time to learn more about others I’m interested in. See for me, pursuing digital marketing as a masters started off as just wanting an official education in everything I would need to run my blog etc as a successful business and then put those skills to use to build my own small business. The dreaded graduation anxiety hit hard and I found myself desperately searching for a full time job and with new qualifications in it, pursuing a career as a digital marketer made sense. Now I’m not saying it’s not for me, but I’ve always felt like it’s a job where I can never feel like I’m not drowning. There’s always more to learn, imposter syndrome was rife within me in my digital marketing jobs and I never felt like I was good enough. Expected to know every answer and even when I was a one man department I was overworked and stressed all the time and I really feel that pursuing another career will give me better mental health and I can pursue my blog and YouTube in my free time until hopefully the YouTube subscribers roll in and I start getting paid partnerships to do it full time (haha! I wish! A girl can dream but I’m manifesting it!)
Gratefulness- Even though I was made redundant and have been unemployed for months, I’ve tried my hardest to stay positive and use this time wisely. It almost feels like a bit of a lucky thing to have the time to work on myself. I’ve learnt to be grateful for everything even the small things. When I lost my job my mental health plummeted and I was beyond stressed out, drained and in desperate need of help. One thing that helped me get out of this was keeping a gratitude page in my journal. Realising that even though I’m in a bad situation, I’m still very lucky and should be grateful that I have a home, a roof over my head, a partner who could afford to look after us both, food in the fridge, a loving little dog who just wants to spend every moment with me and the list goes on. It changed my mindset so much and I’m incredibly grateful for that as it’s put me into a positive, goal setting mind set for 2021.
