If you’ve learned one thing from 2020, its that life has a sneaky way of throwing surprises at you. Whether its an unexpected bump in the road, or being blind-sided by the impact of a global pandemic, these events are sent to test you and ultimately, they do make you stronger.
If you’ve started your planning for 2021, you have to factor in the unexpected.
Life is way more disruptive today, than it ever has been in the past. Technology is causing us to shift constantly, the psyche of consumer behaviour is shifting constantly, and if you aren’t finding ways to shift your own thinking then you’re going to be left behind.
Finding your own way to remain calm in the chaos is so important because those who remain calm, are generally the ones who react the fastest to the change, and ultimately reap the most reward.
Here are 2 things to consider when planning for your next 12 months:
1. Understand the Law of Rythm – it’s a Universal Law that states that everything works in cycles. What goes up must go down, and every summer will eventually turn into winter.
Understand that you will have times where everything is going well, and when you’re in the ‘summer’ of your life, make sure that you reap as much as you can, whilst ensuring that you are also planning for the next winter.
Likewise, when you are living through a ‘winter’ phase of your life, understand that while it may be difficult to reap your rewards right now, your summer time is around the corner, and any seeds you plant and water now, will be ready for you to harvest when your seasons change.
If you go into hibernation during winter, building up momentum takes you a lot longer when the sun eventually comes out.
2. Magnify the Learnings – COVID-19 plunged you into an unexpected winter, the type of winter you could not have prepared for, but the lessons you would have learned during this time will prove to be invaluable when winter returns.
If you knew you were going to go through that type of winter again (ie a Lockdown situation), how would you prepare differently during the summer?
So often your focus is on building massive momentum in the summer time, and because everything seems to be going so well, the thought of a winter season does not even enter your mind. Something as simple as putting cash reserves away for a rainy day is forgotten during good times, and you spend as much as you earn.
COVID-19 wasn’t a rainy day. It was a monsoon. It wasn’t expected, but who’s to say that you don’t experience something similar again in the future? Ensure the lessons you learned don’t go to waste.
Finally, this mail has focused on the unexpected events that can rock your business world, but as you know, a change in seasons can happen to you in your personal life as well. Life is not all roses and caviar.
People in your life will hurt you, disappoint you, leave you, let you down and go back on their word, and like the changing of the seasons, there is actually nothing you can do to control the actions of another.
All you can control is what you choose focus on, as well as how you react to unexpected reactions, situations and events.
Remember to focus on what you want, and not on what you don’t want. Life will always throw you a curve-ball or two, but to be honest, if life was all about roses and caviar, you’d probably find it a little boring after a while.
Have a great week.