Find Your Happy

"A crisis can either make us or break us. ​Let it make us."

We should never forget how this pandemic is making us feel.

Everything is different. This is why.

Like many of us, every year I reflect on the year that was.

I think about:
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• What did I achieve?

 

• Who + how did I help?

 

• What did I learn?

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• What was my impact?

It’s a time that provokes deep thinking and defines goals for the year ahead.

• Read 1-2 books a month

 

• Discover + listen to 1 podcast series a month unrelated to work or current interests 

   

• Pay it forward and offer a minimum of 10 hours of coaching a month

   

• Increase exercise by 1/2 hour per day

 

• Cycle every weekend for 3 hours 

 

• Increase bedtime by an hour a day

The list went on.

This crisis forced a reset.

The loss of life and suffering around the world is devastating - incomprehensible. Slap in the face perspective. 

From the confines of our home - we have been humbled. We've all been put back in our place to focus on what matters most. Everything else has been stripped back.

The ambitious goals list is no more. The new world disorder has forced a new goal.

A goal not requiring financial investment for it to be realised. A goal not requiring a plane trip to another country, a course or a conference to attend.

A single goal with a simple focus.

New 2020 goal: Just be happy

That’s not to say, goals on lists don’t create happy experiences - it’s just that right here and now - being happy in the simplest of forms, is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and the people around us.

It’s a realisation that ultimately our happiness and the happiness we create is what matters most. It forms part of our legacy and it can be sparked in the most simplest of ways.

I’ve rediscovered happiness in:
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• Home cooked meals we prepare together and long kitchen table conversations with my family

 

• Observing my children and becoming mesmerised by their curiosity, growing knowledge, changing faces and resilience 

 

• Looking at photos and talking about moments we've shared, memories of trips to galleries, museums and holidays 

 

• Reconnecting with family + friends over video conversations

 

• Drinking coffee whilst enjoying rays of sun in the garden

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• Planting and watching vegetables grow

Simple pleasures.

We can not forget how this situation is making us feel today. 

We can not forget who and what we miss. Miss with intensity. 

Everything is different.

Over the coming months, as we navigate through this situation and head towards the other side, we must resist the temptation to go back to how we were.

We must force ourselves and each other to remember these days and the way this crisis makes us think and feel right now.

This pain and reflection is our catalyst for long term change. Change for good.

We must embrace this opportunity to forge deeper and more meaningful connections with each other.

It’s our chance to recreate community at a time when ego was dominating and community was crumbling.

This is an opportunity to simplify our complex lives and focus on the basics.

For me, I’ve found my happy and I’m not letting go.

A crisis can either make us or break us.

Let it make us.

​How have your goals changed?

What’s your happy?