2020: A Year of Change

2020 has taught me to never take anything for granted. Life is a gift with an expiration date on it. Do better, be better; you only get one chance to be the best you.

We get caught up in the moment and miss the moments that really matter. Living in the moment and enjoying the people around you is amazing. It is about all the little moments and actions in life that are remembered. I don’t think my children remember one material thing from their childhood. They remember the fishing trips, days in the woods, hikes, and time with their grandparents, nothing else. It is all about the perspective you take in all the situations you are presented with. This year has been tough, but the moments and memories spent will be remembered much differently depending on your perspective.

Perspective: it is an amazing gift if you are willing to open your heart and mind to see things from another person’s vantage point. If we just take a breath, listen, and actually hear what others are saying, it would really make a profound difference. Unfortunately, I think that we have stopped listening. We need to really hear what people are crying out to understand what they are saying. I will never know what it is to walk in someone else’s shoes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hear what they are saying.

In business, one of my favorite sayings is: Your customers’ perception is your reality. What that means to me is, well, my feelings do not matter! Seriously, if my customers are not happy, it doesn’t matter if I am happy. Something has to change. Why can’t we act that way in our normal lives and live with a more holistic perspective of what others are going through and how we can do better and be better?

What is interesting about 2020 is depending on where you live, the people you have in your life and your attitude on your situations, your perception is dramatically different. None of these feelings or attitudes are wrong, what is misplaced is the ability to be understanding of others. Why can’t we apply that same level of understanding in other events of the world? 2020 has left me with more questions than answers, but it would be nice to actually have substantive conversations rather than heated arguments that solve nothing.

2020 should be a year of change and evolution rather than regression and sorrow. It doesn’t matter anymore who is right or wrong, what matters is how we are going to move forward. We have to be better tomorrow than we were today, period. We have to agree and understand that there are no right or wrong answers, but the lessons we have been taught and how we apply them to be better humans than we were yesterday.

Be better than you were yesterday. That is a lesson I will never take for granted and one that I will always strive for in my life and those that I surround myself with. People are good. Life is a gift. Never settle and always have the drive and passion to be better in all that you do.