Another (pandemic) year is ending and we are preparing for a new one. Initially I did not feel to write an end of the year “article” but then I thought of how difficult 2021 has been in comparison with 2020. Like in the “Death to 2021 “ movie (follow up of Death to 2020) the year seemed better but in fact was more erratic than ever, no matter of how good or bad one was generally in his life. It did not even made me laugh…. We traveled more and overall we had more holiday than ever but we still ended up in December depleted of our forces. At least this is how it felt in my family. How come? Several reasons come to mind:
(1) while 2020 was the first year of pandemic with its unforeseen changes and losses, we thought 2021 will be better. Maybe because fundamentally, I am an optimist or maybe because of vaccination campaigns or maybe because we could not imagine the incertitude continuing like this. But it did. Every kind of plan at personal or professional level had a risk of being postponed, having unforeseen complications or not happening at all…and every single one felt like a difficult birth.
(2) In my case I had overall less clients and projects but their difficulty increased. Many companies cut the budget on what is still called soft skills. What a paradox…when I (and not only me) thought that now managers and teams would need more support to go through this period. Those who smartly and wisely continue or intensify their support for employees were trying to figure out what to do and how to act in this specific situation. The VUCA at maximum! The positive side is that those who decide to continue to invest in their people were more motivated than ever, serios in their endeavour and generally a pleasure to work with.
The clients accessing the individual growth services were all courageously and some times urgently looking for meaning in their own careers or lives in general. Here again I was lucky and honoured to work with smart people. Many people imagine that crossing the office threshold of a coaching psychologist would belong to the 18-20% of the working adult population that suffers from some level of mental issues. The reality is completely different. Most of them are well adapted and successful people coming to learn and figure out how to make positive choices that will increase their happiness, life satisfaction, performance and generally stay fit in the midst of all of this. So the challenges of working with them brought a lot of satisfaction as well as a higher spending in energy.
(3) Overall we lived at a bit at the extremes by either cutting off many of our social activities or going for them like a thirsty person that would drink even poisoned water…
(4) The weather…this year was the worse in many years in Luxembourg. The number of sunny days dropped significantly…and generally the weather was more capricious and grey increasing the depressive sensation that we live the end of …something.
So…what am I looking forward to into the next year? Besides spending as much time as possible with my dear ones, definitely more work but hopefully a better selection of it. One project I am looking definitely forward to is the mentoring and coaching program “Mentor in era digitala” that I will start in Romania. It is the first project in Romania for more than 15 years …And I am definitely excited! Also, new collaborations coming along with professionals that I met recently. Spreading more about research and practice of positive psychology and positive psychology coaching goes without saying. But most of it I am looking forward to work with my clients in my new office that I opened in September. The freedom of working with people coming from their own will to coaching or to EMDR therapy is the most rewarding. I find that the good mix between online and offline working brings a special flavor and connection to people living and working far away. Supporting coaches to their journey of accreditation is another project started in 2021 that I am looking forward to continue and grow.
What I am not looking forward to are more erratic, unharmonized, illogic and badly argumented measures against Covid. I think as humans living in this era we should be smarter than that in argumentations, in decision making…in health policies in general. And this is valid for all of us.
So what about to make next year the year of more awareness, mindfulness, reflection and generally better decisions as social human beings?
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