DON'T WAIT UNTIL 2021 TO CREATE CHANGE

How many times have you heard people lament recently that they just wish that 2020 was over already? I get it, it’s been one helluva year, but do we really want to wish away three months of our lives in the hope that 2021 will miraculously deliver all the answers we seek? I don’t and you shouldn’t either. Here’s how you can use this time to create real change. 

When the world slowed down and we retreated into our homes, we finally had the time to think about how we really want to be spending our time and the world we want to live in – we were forced into reflection. Whether you realise it or not, that reflection has now gifted us all with a new level of awareness and consciousness.

We have a golden opportunity to use this new awareness and consciousness to ask ourselves: who we want to show up as next, what we really care about, and what we truly want to do with our time on this planet. 

Maybe you realised that you no longer want to spend 10 hours a week commuting to and from work, or that your home and work don’t need to be as separate as you thought, or maybe you’ve found that you don’t have to work as many hours as you were previously. By stepping off the “business as usual” treadmill we’ve been able to unravel the stories that we told ourselves about work, life, and success.

So what do we do with this new awareness? Do we wait until the world is “back on track” to start implementing the changes we’ve realised we need? Definitely not.

2021 is not going to be a redo of 2019 and expecting it to be so denies ourselves the gifts and learnings of this year. 2020 is the opportunity we need to change ourselves in order to change our world. 

Now is the time to experiment, so you learn something new

This final quarter of the year is not a time to wish away as we await the new year, nor is it a time to rush into action. Instead, I recommend that you use the final three months of 2020 for radical experimentation.

While we’re in this state of flux, use this time to play around with your work routine, your work habits, the way you run your business, and the way you live your life. Try things you love or do things differently. What have you been drawn to this year? Follow those paths and see where they take you – maybe you will realise they were a passing interest, or maybe you will discuss a deep newly discovered passion.

Rather than waiting around to be reactive to what the world looks like in 2021, be proactive now to figure out what you want your life and your world to look like.

Awareness and small shifts

Experimentation is a conscious exercise in awareness and reflection – we try something and we see how it feels. 

Not sure where to start? Here’s a little exercise I recommend to help you use the remaining quarter of 2020 proactively.

The 10/10 exercise

At the start of each month, I ask my clients to do a quick audit of their lives to see how they are feeling and what they want to improve. I ask them to rate their satisfaction with the following aspects of their lives giving them a score out of 10 for the previous month: health, mental/emotional, love and partnerships, family, friends, purpose/mission, experiences, finances, learning, beliefs/spirituality. I ask them to consider the question; how aligned to your best self are you here?

After giving each category a rating, I ask my clients to jot down small steps they could take to make each category rank an 8 or higher. For example, if learning ranked low for you last month, what small steps could you take to bring that up this month?

Here’s the thing. The goal of the exercise is about making change, that is meaningful – it’s not about getting a 10/10 across your entire life. This is about creating and building the muscle that is bringing awareness to your life and experimenting with small shifts to see what creates the greatest change. You get to bring awareness to the things that matter, create joy and energy, and also let's be honest; you see what actually sucks and can choose to change that!

Give this exercise a try over the next three months and see what your life and work looks like by the time we reach 2021. I bet that by the time 1 January rolls around you’ll be much clearer about who you want to be and how you want to live.

Remember, we can’t control the external things that happen around us, but we can change how we show up to meet those events and how we move throughout this world.

Who’s up for checking in, rather than checking out for the next quarter?!

Enjoy experiencing change!

The 10/10 check in is your opportunity to be present to ‘what is’, not absent and stuck in busy. Here’s a quick tool you can use to prompt what areas might need small adjustments of change.