Welcome to 2021, a year of new beginnings
I love January and I’m excited that 2021 finally shoved 2020 to the pavement so we can move forward. As 2021 unfolds, let’s take a moment to reflect—a moment—not long, difficult hours of laments and rehashing of the miseries, and get ready for this time of opportunity and adventure.
Let’s rejoice that there’s finally a COVID-19 vaccine, but let’s actively advocate for more widespread/efficient distribution and some immediate relief for front-line and health care personnel. Every report I’ve seen and heard indicates that these folks are forever changed and will need long-term mental health care to deal with exhaustion, stress, and so much death and loss.
Additionally, the human/cultural toll on families will take generations to overcome. My great-grandmother lived with us until I was 15, and was a great source of joy, stories, wisdom, and patience. Her death, like that of our elders and extended family who succumbed during this pandemic, left a huge hole.
According to a recent news report, young widows and widowers, especially those with small children, formed a support group to help families cope and offer support to this “club nobody wanted to belong to” as one widow put it. Lest we forget, we can be extra sensitive, attentive, and kind this year. Our actions can make the difference.
I am also relieved that we are finally on the other side of Election 2020 with the completion of the Georgia senatorial races. In what has been dubbed as one of the most expensive contests ever, the positive is the intense interest and the excellent turnout it prompted.
I will wonder but not point fingers at the logic it makes to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns while families struggle with unemployment, empty food banks, and pending homelessness. As some of our politicians have reminded us: it is what it is, but we can do better.
With that said and all that is behind us, welcome to a new year, a new opportunity to do and be better, to be more involved, to be all we were created to be.
January is National Reach Your Potential Month and while I didn’t create this designation, I enthusiastically embrace it. Potential is a powerful word, but like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, it gets no respect. Overcoming obstacles, tapping our source of inner strength, going the extra mile—all the above—will help us be triumphant every time.
The pages of history are full of stories about people who achieved beyond their expectations and capacity because they refused to give up. They kept pushing, striving, and putting one foot in front of the other, and as poet Edgar A. Guest said, they tackled the thing that couldn’t be done, and did it. This is our year to contemplate, to dream, to plan, to do, so don’t miss it.
January is also the time we make resolutions that too often disappear by February. Let 2021 be different. Clean out those closets and dresser drawers. Save the heartstrings stuff, toss the rest.
Yes, I have folded aluminum foil to reuse because I’m trying to be earth friendly but if you need a storage unit because you have so much stuff, get better organized. Can you find what you’re looking for quickly and easily?
If you can’t, create a filing system so you don’t keep touching the same stuff over and over. My “place for everything and everything in its place” mantra saves time and keeps my glasses, purse, keys, etc., handy.
Make 2021 your best, most productive, amazing year ever. Start today.
How do you plan to make 2021 your best, most productive, amazing year ever? Share with me at #drbondhopson on Twitter and Facebook!
Looking for inspiration, empowerment, uplift, straight talk, an encouraging word to brighten your day? You’ve arrived! Meet Dr. Cynthia Ann Bond Hopson, best-selling author, educator, inspirational speaker, sistergirl–she’s all that and more. Now listen to her new podcast, “Three Stores, Two Cotton Gins, One Remarkable Life: The Journey from There To Here,” and meet her favorite family and friends as they share laughter and heartwarming life lessons. Look for it on this page or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
