Jason Bateman started his monologue on SNL last night asking everyone who was over 2020 to raise their hands and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
There’s no denying that this year has been exceptionally rough for everyone except for Jeff Bezos and I realize he was simply pandering to the majority in his monologue but the thing is, this happens. every. year.
Around the holidays and often much earlier, people start celebrating the end of the year like it’s the end of a bad book they were forced to read for school and start looking forward to the New Year like it’s the answer to all of their problems. Like a brand new journal, untouched and full of possibilities.
I’ve done it too.
I could not wait for 2016 to end. The worst year of my life to date— that is, if you measure bad things in annual units. See, all of the things that happened in 2016 that made me pray for the New Year to come were still there, still true on January 1, 2017.
Despite the new calendar, I still needed to work through each of my troubles and trying experiences in order to start healing and moving forward.
Looking back, I can see that by the time the New Year had come, I had already begun dealing with and healing from the worst the year threw at me. It wasn’t easy by any means and some of those things still affect me to this day. But despite my wishing for the New Year, I ultimately never gave up and resigned myself to having a terrible year which meant that I didn’t need to find the motivation to start trying again.
2016 wasn’t all bad after all.
I don’t know who needs to hear this (if anyone) but years are not like Ecto-Containment Units.
The things that are troubling you, that are holding you back from reaching your full potential, from being happy, from thriving — they’re still going to be around on January 1st.
I really hate to say this but there will still be a global pandemic in 2021.
It’s going to take an unknown number of years for us to get past this thing, and an unknown number of more years for the impact of it to run its course. As much as we hate to admit it, we know this to be true.
That said, we don’t have to wait until the New Year to have a new outlook. Change can start at any time of any day of any week of any month of any year.
So, even though there are only a few weeks left of 2020, let’s not fall into the tired habit of wishing our lives away like we do every year. Let’s not give up and let’s not wait for permission to start again.
Let’s start right now.