The year 2021 has been a brutal one for many people. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. After surviving the plague of our age in 2020, we hoped 2021 would be a great year. That we would be able to live and love fully again. That the surge in deaths would cease. That we would return to those good times, the ones we never realized were that good, and the normal, which we craved so much, would return.
We are hopeful creatures. Hope is a great thing. It keeps
us moving forward when we don’t have the strength to go. It helps us maintain
sanity when our moods are dire. It is the light at the end of our personal
darkness. But we never were able to get there in 2021. And while hope makes us
feel wonderful, hopes that get crushed cause more distress. The plague just
hung on, killing hundreds of thousands more - generating fear, sadness, grief,
and frustration into us all at once.
2021 may have been better for some people, but it brought
tremendous sorrow for others. My friend Harry described his year in terms of
all the people in his life that were gone, some from the plague, some from
other things. The natural deaths that occurred were added on to the plague
fatalities, to create one giant pile of death. I can count my losses also:
Graham, Dana, Mark, Richard, and finally, the plague has taken away my dear
friend Kora, the day after Christmas. Yes, death happens. It must happen. But
none of these people, none, are older than me. And then there’s the close
relative recently diagnosed with a terrible, terminal condition.
Two years living with the plague has put people under an
incredible amount of stress. Add any additional pressure on top of it, and bad
things happen - the riots, the murders, the crime, the robberies, the
arguments, the fights, etc.
Personally, your mood and outlook have been negatively
impacted by the dark clouds of the last two years. You are not treating other
people as well as you could. You are not thinking as clearly. You are moody and
prone to fits of anger. You have lowered your expectations. You have put your
dreams and plans on hold. This change began slowly and would have quickly disappeared
if the plague had been brief. But after two years, there is a danger these
negative traits have burrowed into your soul.
As we enter the new year, sometime soon, it will be time to
live again. It will be time to put away the sorrows and struggles of the past
and embrace the future. 2022 is a breakthrough year and ….
IT’S TIME TO: RAISE YOUR GAME
It’s time to treat others better than they deserve. People have been hurting so much. They are moody, angry, rude, argumentative, etc. Realize that, and strive to be better in your words and deeds. Imagine you are a nurse walking through a ward of sick people. Deliver the mercy and compassion that people need. It’s time to bring the best “you” to the table – and to your world.
RAISE YOUR GAME
Help others when you see they need help. Be the best person
you can be, because the world has changed, and not for the better. Raise your
game and be a better person than you were before the plague. If you don’t, you
risk hold on to all the negatively weighing you down. Be your best person ever
this year because people need it.
RAISE YOUR GAME
For two years we have complained about our conditions. “If
it weren’t for the plague, I could have achieved this.” “Things would have gone
much better, except …..”. The plague has weighed us down. The plague has frozen
us in time. When things break open, there is a risk that we will remain cold and
be hesitant to move forward. But we must run hot. We must break loose this
year. Understand that our efforts in 2020 and 2021 are insufficient for 2022.
You have been held down for two years. Now Go! Go fly. Go achieved. Go
flourish. It’s time to ….
RAISE YOUR GAME
Make 2022 one of the best years of your life, after
trudging through two awful, terrible years.
RAISE YOUR GAME
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