2020?  The Future Just Got Real Real!

2020? How did that happen?

This year — 2020 — always sounded super futuristic and unimaginable to my younger self’s ears, and now suddenly … here it is. That’s what happens, isn’t it? We get up every day, go about doing our “thang,” sometimes taking big leaps and sometimes falling back a few steps, and then suddenly an entire year has passed and a New Year is upon us.

At the start of a new year, many of us do a bit of navel-gazing, assessing, and often judging ourselves for how much we “got done” or “accomplished” in the year that has ended And while goals checked off and accomplishments under our belt can be good markers for how well we focused our energies, if the things we got done aren’t the things that really matter to us, we may be feeling kind of blah at the onset of a new year.

Instead of looking at how much you got done over the year, ask yourself this: How did I feel? — not just during the highs and lows, but on average, day-in and day-out.

Would you say you felt overall positive and focused? Did you feel loved and did you feel love for others?

Did you have moments of pleasure — whether it was from seeing a bird land outside your window, sitting in the warm sunshine (like my sweet cat Coco) or from jetting off to Paris? When you got into bed most nights, did you snuggle under the covers with a sense of contentment? And when you awoke, were you most often enthusiastic about the day ahead?

However you assess the past year — with a glowing review, a “meh” shrug of the shoulders, or an overall thumbs down, what matters most is what you do next!

How do you want to experience your life this year? Do you yearn to create significant changes over the next 12 months? Or maybe you want to fine-tune the already-pretty-dang-good life you have? Do you have specific things you hope to accomplish? Or is your vision to do less and enjoy more? Most importantly, how do you want to feel over the remaining 360 days of 2020?

Whatever you want to experience — however you want to feel next year at this time — when that clock hand or digital increment turns from 2020 to 2021 — that experience, that feeling — it all starts right here, right now, in the current moment.

As you head boldly into the new year, if you want ideas and inspiration on how to maximize your 2020 vision, I invite you to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or reach out via email to mc@coolidgewords.com.

“Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute:
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage and then the mind grows heated;
Begin and then the work will be completed.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe