Well, there it is, 2020. 366 days, 366 chances, 366 possibilities to learn and make dreams come true. At least, that's how I plan to approach this. However, since I'm a bit incapacitated in the physical department right now - one cold per year is sort of part of the game - I'm giving the past 12 months a few thoughts.
I can state with a very good conscience that 2019 hasn't been my favourite year ever. There have been so many moments when I found myself in places of both physical as well as mental and emotional nature I did not want to be in. Of course, this would be a possibility to discuss them at length. But I think it's the same here as it is with endless reports of races someone might or might not have taken part in, held in way too explicit detail: some will read them out of politeness, but there won't be anyone really interested in them and also, they're not exactly fun to read.
So I'd like to focus on the one quality that 2019 has kept for me to the day: it WAS. Past tense. Adieu. There really isn't anything I could do to change something that's gone and with that, it's becoming redundant to waste time and thoughts on it.
Yet I'm beating the dead horse notwithstanding. Why? That's simple: Even if I haven't been indulging in the heavenly spheres of ecstasy all the time there were lots of things that were, after all, just good and teaching. So much that I want to take them with me into 2020. Also, I'm a bit of a pedant and that's why I won't tire of remarking that 2020 is as a matter of fact not the beginning of a new decade but instead the last year of the actual one. Which means that we do get another full year to close it down and, in case that's not already been done, make it into something exceptional. There is still a lot to do and to learn.
So once more, I indulge in a little thinking and I am feeling motivated to share 20 of my key-thoughts here. To those who are expecting the most profound shards of wisdom here: you might be disappointed. I'm neither Gautama Siddharta nor Friedrich Nietzsche. So here we go:
20 lessons for the new year
1. It's a personal decision whether to get mat about something or take it personal, every single time.
2. Most of the time, our intuition is telling us long before the dreaded Q.E.D. whether certain people are good for us or not. It pays off to listen to this inner voice.
3. To postpone risks hardly pays off, except perhaps when it comes to basejumping down the Eiger north face.
4. It is absolutely possible to be informed objectively and extensively on what is going on in the world. If we accept the first opinion that is thrown at us on the internet as facts, it's not the world which is bad but our laziness which makes it appear so.
5. If you think that spending CHF 20.- for a new book every month is too much money and the time to read it is wasted or just "not available", you should probably question yourself the very moment you enter the drive-in of the local fast food joint the next time.
6. If you don't know who Neil Armstrong was but simultaneously can recite the gross income of Kanye West, you're not a bad person but perhaps it's time to review your internet and media-habits. Lack of intelligence is not a sin. Lack of interest, however, is.
7. If you feel insulted by the points 4 to 6: see 1.
8. "I can't go on anymore" and "I can't do this" are two fundamentally different things and should be taken serious accordingly.
9. The same is for "to want something" and "to want to want something".
10. Life goes on. Always. Somehow.
11. Change won't happen by turning one's life upside down from one day to the other but by learning how to master the simple things on a daily basis.
12. Success doesn't happen by coincidence but is the result of a combination of point 11 mixed with determination, focus and the will to accept the uncomfortable.
13. A certain brutality towards the own person can be helpful if you're about to leave your comfort zone.
14. There is no reason to treat other people unfriendly. Not even if you're having the worst day of bad days and feel triggered even by the sunlight reflecting on young daisy petals.
15. If you see people in trouble and you could help them but you don't because you "don't have the time", you're lying to yourself. Also, see 5.
16. "You can come by my place anytime" is a nice and also gloriously passive-aggressive version of "I don't care about your troubles and please, keep them to yourself".
17. Friends are important and friendships worth taking care of.
18. Being alone and being lonely isn't the same. One can be funny and reviving, the other one can kill you.
19. If someone wants to talk you into abandoning your dreams, it happens because they abandoned theirs.
20. YOU are precious. Yes, also you, dear reader. ESPECIALLY you.
That's it. No resolutions except two:
1. Parking fines and speed violations are nothing but idiot-fees I'm not willing to pay. So: No traffic-violations in 2020.
2. I have goals. To reach them, I won0t do what I can but what is necessary.
Well - let's go, 2020. Let's do this.
Kind regards,
Fabian