It’s been a hard year already. Here’s what you can do about it.

I’m writing this at the end of the second week of 2021. We’ve had enough time to get a taste of what’s in store for the year.

What I’m hearing a lot at the moment whilst talking to people in the park, at cafes, with friends and family, is the cognitive dissonance between what we want and what’s happening to each of us. So many people I’ve spoken with have experienced events that have disappointed or upset them already this year.

It brings to mind the quote from Eurypides…

“And why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice!”

Everyone wants to mark the (arbitrary) threshold of a new year with a fresh start, the blank slate to spend the next year building upon. Especially when we get the chance to say goodbye to a year like 2020. We want to start the year thinking things will change, this year will be different.

But the world has other ideas.

COVID doesn’t honour the new year by taking time off.

Politics and politicians will continue frustrating us.

The climate crisis won’t abate (that is, until we can convince our leaders to take the action necessary to address it).

Our personal anxieties and insecurities will continue to gnaw away at us.

Disruptions to our plans and hopes will continue. It’s genuinely disappointing. We all desperately want to move forward to more hopeful and promising things. And that will happen, but not necessarily on our desired timetable.

So what can we do?

Go back to first principles: what is and isn’t in your control.

Cultivate a focus on what’s in your control and devote your energy and time there. Invest the rest of your energy on accepting everything else.

It might not prevent wider events from impacting your plans, or derailing your goals, but if you can return — again and again — to what is in your control, then you can build the resilience and adaptability that will make you indefatiguable in the face of events that are out of your control.

Photo by Lanju Fotografie on Unsplash