It is a long time since I last posted. I am not sure why. I think, like many people, the craziness of 2020 distracted me for a while. However, I am back, this time with a bunch of random thoughts, all thrown in together in a blog post. It feels a bit untidy, to be dumping all of my thoughts of the past few months into a single post. However, logical and well-laid out thought doesn’t seem to be quite where I am at right now with this blog, so I am accepting those boundaries and remaining in wonder about what I will create.

Although 2020 has been a year that I don’t think anyone could ever have imagined, it has also been a year that has taught me many lessons. While I will always look back on 2020 with total disbelief – I mean by March in Australia alone, we had experienced bush fires, flooding, tennis-ball-sized hailstones, the beginnings of a pandemic and goodness knows what else – I will always be incredibly grateful for the lessons learned. It can take lifetimes to learn some of this stuff. 2020 gave me that learning in less than 12 months. Maybe even less than 6 months.

The Covid lockdown helped me to see that sometimes it is useful to hit the reset button on life. In many ways, I think that our family needed that. And, as much as Covid has been a year of devastation for many, I am incredibly grateful that it reminded me of what was important to me. Slow down and enjoy your family, Deanne. You just never know what will happen… My family and the life that I live are a gift, and I thank Covid for reminding me of that.

Something that this year has made even more clear to me is just how much our behaviours are informed by our emotions. We can see that by looking at the leaders who have been dealing with the pandemic. Have a look at the leaders of the countries that are doing well and the leaders of those countries who may not be doing so well. What emotions do we see each of those leaders operating from? What behaviours are those leaders exhibiting as a result of the emotions that they are operating from?

From many leaders, I think we are seeing “others-focused” behaviours. These leaders may not always be getting things right, but they are remaining focused on the people in their country, the pandemic, and the outcomes that they are trying to achieve. I see emotions such as acceptance, ambition, prudence, care, kindness, humility and many more. I see leaders who, even in the face of criticism, remain focused on the end goal.

There are some prominent world leaders who have been assessed by many people to not be doing so well in managing this pandemic. In these leaders. I see very self-focused behaviours that appear to be defensive and self-protecting. I assess fear, anxiety, ambivalence, apathy denial, arrogance and others. When criticised, they don’t seem to be trying to resolve the issue, rather they try to convince people of why they are right, become defensive, and continue the same path.

While no emotion is right or wrong, I have found the emotions of the leaders managing this pandemic to be both a fascinating example of the behaviours that emotions can make available to us and a devastating example of what can happen when we don’t notice or understand our emotions and how to use them. This alone has made me more determined to bring a useful understanding of emotions to everyday people as they experience everyday life. I still dont’ quite know what that looks like. I do know that I feel committed to achieving it.

One of the hugest lessons for me this year was that we just never know what is around the corner. I mean, I think we all knew that already but 2020 gave us an opportunity to really, really know it. In a matter of moments, people were losing lives, lifestyles, loved one, jobs, health, wealth, the ability to see those close to them. The assumption that these important parts of us would remain with us indefinitely was destroyed in one fell swoop. To many of us, not a lot feels as certain as it once may have.

This newfound appreciation of not knowing what is around the corner has been an eye-opener, but also quite a motivator for me. While my blogging efforts have been a little slower than I would have liked, my absence from my blogs does not mean that I have not remained inspired by my blog followers. I am incredibly grateful for my blog followers. Watching my audience grow and interact with my blogs has continually inspired me to keep going with what I am trying to create. And so I have spent time developing a number of programs that have the people who follow me in mind.

The offer that I am most excited about is my free monthly workshop series, where I choose a normal- everyday topic and present a free one-hour workshop based on that topic. It is an opportunity for others to learn some new perspectives on life without any additional expense or obligation. Reduced suffering in our interactions is something that I think everyone should have available to them, and I want to help make that possible.

So I guess as I look back on 2020 to date, I have some regret and guilt about not being able to juggle all of my commitments during the past few months. However, I also have some massive excitement about what is to come.

I think the whole world would pretty much agree that this year has been a challenge. However, challenges bring amazing opportunities to learn.

What has your experience of this year helped you to learn?

I am a blogger, coach and facilitator who loves to help people to become unstuck and create possibility new possibilities for themselves. If you would like to check out what I do, please click on the button below. Information about the free Monthly Musings Workshop Series is also available at the link below.

Feature Image by Dave Francis from Pixabay