Hello, 2021! And to those of you reading this, hope it's been a decent enough start.
It's been more than a whole month since I last wrote. Things have been busy and I haven't felt like writing. True to form and in the spirit of keeping things simple, I focused on work, which occupied most of my time, and did my best to enjoy the holidays, which ate up the rest of my time.
But now it's 2021 and a stat holiday - yay! Let's get to it.
Three Good Things: Learnings from 2020
Clearly, 2020 was a year to remember. Yes, it was mostly shit. But not all of it was bad.
Throughout the summer and fall, when work was less hectic, I was able to sit in on quite a few Creative Mornings FieldTrips, hosted from around the world - something that would never have happened in a time of lesser remote-ness.
One of those sessions was by Dr. Sebastian Kernbach from the Life Design Lab at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, on using design thinking to be "more productive, increase your well-being, and stay sane (aka [sic] mentally healthy and resilient)." Hands down, this was one of the most informative and useful sessions on working from home I've ever heard, with so many good takeaways.
 |
| Presentation slide, with Sebastian's scribbles © Dr. Sebastian Kernbach |
One of those useful tidbits was the idea of three good things: focusing each day on three good things that happened - and specifically, taking the time to write them down, explaining how each made you feel and the reasons why the event made you feel that way.
On the surface, this may look an awful lot like a gratitude practice; I guess it kind of is, in a way. But rather than a rote citing of things for which you might be grateful, it is a retraining of the mind to focus on good stuff and the positive feelings associated with those good events. To me, it seems more like a change management exercise - like, breaking a bad habit of focusing on negative feelings, rather than just simply "gratitude" in general.
All this to say, it would be so much easier to focus on the bad things of 2020 - and yes, there are a lot of them, and we shouldn't forget them, either... learnings for the future, and all. But for today, the first day of the new year, here are my three good things from 2020.
Seeing penguins swimming in the vast, open ocean for the very first time, I actually cried I was so overwhelmed by the majesty of the Antarctic and this wild habitat. I think these feelings were caused by a lifelong interest in penguins - to see them where they belong, doing their own thing, versus forced into captivity and some wading pool-equivalent in a zoo somewhere, was simultaneously heartbreaking and joyous. Definitely a moment that will stay with me forever.
2. Running my first 10k race since 2017
Having been beset by injuries the past few years, I managed to get healthy enough to run a virtual 10k in early August - which was just incredible. Marathoning and injuries for me always seemed to go hand-in-hand; I was skeptical that even 10k would be possible for me ever again. But working with a new physiotherapist, and being able to finish that distance after so long felt like a reward for my efforts: I did the work, and it paid off!
(Note: still rehabbing my new injuries of 2020, but - whaddya gonna do? Just keep moving forward, I guess.)
3. Being involved in COVID-19 recovery, surge planning, and vaccine distribution efforts
Working in health care during a pandemic is crazy times, for sure! These past nine months have been overwhelming, with a lot of overtime, an incredible need to be adaptable, and learning how to take care of one's self in order to not burn out. But I have also felt very grateful to be involved in the administrative end of things and as part of much larger teams, planning for health care system recovery and COVID-19 surges, and now the distribution of vaccines. As a prominent health care leader once said, "COVID-19 is the defining health care crisis of our time." I'm so glad to be here for it, contributing to pandemic management in my own small way.
There you go: my three good things from 2020 and in a pandemic year, no less. What are yours?
 |
| What work during the early days of the pandemic often felt like © KC Green |
No comments:
Post a Comment