A few weeks ago a client asked me to write a short piece of guidance for 2021 for their end of year newsletter.  I sat for a long time pondering what to say, and in the end, rather than contemplate the year ahead, I felt the need to comment on the year that has been.

At the end of 2019, like so many others, I created my list of goals for the year ahead.  I started 2020 with a diary filled with bookings and travel, and I also hoped to complete the Psychology degree that I was working through at far to slow a pace.  In the third week in January, I had an unplanned but much welcomed week in Sydney, and just 3 weeks later, with just 2 weeks’ notice, I was off to a retreat in Fiji, and somewhere in the mix I had final year psychology assignments and exams to complete.  In March everything changed.  The trips to Sydney and Fiji took on new meaning as my last away from home adventures for what I thought might be just a few months, and all to quickly I also learned that the new restrictions meant no in-person bookings. 

My diary was full, but my lack of experience in the virtual setting led me to believe that my programs wouldn’t work on-line.  Thanks to one amazing client I learned how wrong I was.  Rather than cancel they assured me that since everyone would be working both remotely and virtually for a while, we all had to be flexible, and they invited me to complete their virtual platform training program.  A week later, with my computer perched on a tower of books on my ironing board to create a standing desk, my workshops became virtual.  I smiled at how quickly we all made the change, and how I didn’t need what I thought were the compulsory studio space and professional sound and lighting.  As long as we could all see and hear each other we’d get through.  I found absolute delight in how relaxed people were and how willing most of us were to go with the flow.  I smiled as we welcome children and animals and other interruptions into our sessions, laughed as ‘you’re on mute’ became a catch-phrase, happily accepted frozen screens and less than perfect internet connections, and delighted that, with no travel needed, I could take my workshops to workplaces and communities around the world.  But more importantly than anything, I was delighted that so many people were discovering something that I’ve always believed, that, whether it’s my health and wellbeing programs or life in general, simple and flexible are so often the best approaches.  By the end of April I’d found a renewed strength in what has always been my motto, ‘true creativity is found in flexibility and simplicity’. 

2020 was a difficult year for so many and in no way do I want to diminish the experience of anyone, but if we take anything forward into 2021 my hope is that we take the creativity of flexibility and simplicity that 2020 demanded of so many of us.           

For 2021 I’ve also decided to give myself a monthly focussed gratitude challenge.  Because it heralds the start of the new year, the focus for January is ‘new things’.  For the entire month, my plan is to seek out and find gratitude in new things, be it in nature, in new thoughts, new ideas, new foods, new spaces to explore, new friends, new concepts, the list goes on.  You might like to join me.  January – new things.

Oh, and as a footnote, while the formal graduations were cancelled and I didn’t get to ‘frock up’ in the traditional gown, collar and cap, I did complete my bachelor’s degree in psychological sciences.   

I wish you creativity, flexibility and simplicity for 2021, thoughts of newness for January, and, whatever 2021 brings for you, an exceptional year.   

Bron