As I sat there on New Year’s Eve, the last day of 2020, eating a piping hot bowl of oatmeal, I attempted to reflect on what had been an incredible year. Incredible in the sense that it was completely unexpected. I know the inclination is to refer to it as a very bad year, but every year has its ups and downs and there have been far worse years in our history, although most of us did not live them.

This is usually the day that we all decide what we are going to do differently in the new year; how we are going to change and do better; what we are going to improve; what we are going to stop doing; how we are going to take ourselves to the next level, whatever that level may be.

Frankly, I think many of us couldn’t wait to pop the metaphorical champagne cork and party like it’s 1999 – as 2000 was the year the world was supposed to end, and it didn’t. It’s almost impossible to believe that it has been 21 years ago. I don’t expect 2021 to be the year the world ends either.

It was, by all accounts, one of the most challenging years in our “modern” history, but it was still a year. As of today, many people are still out of work, caring for or mourning loved ones, anxious to get a vaccine so they can at least begin to put their lives back together and bring back some sense of normality to living. Regardless of whether you agree with the government shutdowns and mask mandates, we all would have made some adjustments to the way we approach life during the pandemic, which would have an impact on what we do in 2021.

One thing I know about us is, no matter how many times we get knocked down we get right back up, and that is what makes us different. As we move into 2021, we will get back up and we will charge ahead regardless of whether we make any resolutions to do better – it may not matter. It’s like that story you were always told by the adults in your life growing up when you complained about having to do something hard, you were reminded how they had walked miles in the snow in the freezing cold to school every day – uphill. You couldn’t relate to it; it was kind of a joke. It was real but not for you. Twenty years from now you will have an interesting story to tell the younger generation when they complain about life not being perfect or easy. We were never promised perfect or easy, just life.

So, as I go into 2021, I am going to think about my resolutions more as evolutions and ask questions like; what are the things that I can improve upon; what are the small things that I can change or improve to better prepare me for the next 2020; do these things affect my life at home, at work or both? As we each will have our own set of things we intend to do in 2021, how can we come together and find those efforts to do better together? If there is one thing I’ve learned from 2020, it’s that we need each other, we need to be open to different ideas, we need to work together to achieve a better future; I think 2021 will be that year.