Reflecting on 2020 and Bullet Journal Setup
Happy 2021! Yeah, nothing is any different from the dumpster fire of 2020 but you didn't expect it to shift because of a change in year number did you? Okay, this will be a slightly longer post so let's just get on with this.
Reflecting on 2020's Three Words
If you haven’t read anything on my three words before, it comes from Chris Brogan and you can read his 2018 post for more details. I find it’s a great way to set my intentions for the year, they help keep me focused. For 2020, my three words for Create, Grow and Well - you can read more about them in that post. So, how did I go?
Create - overall I think this went pretty well. I had intended for this to include a lot more writing but words were a bit of a struggle for me in 2020. I think the increased anxiety from the year and finally having a chance to rest from a pretty intense 3-4 years were largely the reason. I think I'll give myself a pass for that though, since I did a lot of other creating along the way.
Grow - I definitely grew my creative skills over the year, and my confidence in them as well. When I planned the Skillshare project I had no idea how important it would be. The focus of the courses shifted to more practical ones to support the new work I was doing too, but I still keep some random things in there that might never be part of my business offering. The graphic side of the business grew in some respects and shrunk in others, but that was 2020.
Well - doing significantly less standing in front of people and being secluded on our island state for the year has done wonders for my mind and body. I'm not saying everything is brilliant now, and I certainly missed the fitness component of not being able to do circus for three months in there, but the down time from facilitation gave be time to recover on a few fronts.
I will be posting on Sunday about my three words for 2021 - they are briefly in the bullet journal setup video below. But this post is getting too long without putting that in.
Bullet Journalling
I noted in the blog post for 2020's three words that I was also going to start bullet journalling, which I did for the entire year. I've never kept a journal or diary going for 12 months, so this was a revelation for me. I'm keeping that and have decided I will share the setup of my 2021 bullet journal on YouTube - I might continue to do this each month but I'm not decided yet. Below is the video if you're interested in the process - there is a voice over. And if you do want me to continue to share these, please let me know.
I will briefly share the saga of this journal. I bought a notebook through Kickstarter I had planned to use and pencilled in the layouts. But the dot grid is not 5mm squares - they were like 4.7mm. I thought I could make it work but before I started inking I realised that is just not who I am, so I grabbed another one I purchased earlier in the year that I had offered to Derek but he decided to stick with what we both used last year (wise man).
I pencilled that one in and as I was drawing it up (videoing the whole thing by the way) I noticed that the paper ghosted pretty badly. It didn't bleed though and I didn't want to feel like wasted more money, so I persevered and drew up all the pages. As I was looking at the finished product, I was reminded of the decision from two days prior and remembered that trying to put up with this is just not who I am - so on Christmas Eve I ordered an Archer & Olive journal from an Australian online store. That arrived on New Year's Eve, which is why I drew it all up on January 1st and am only sharing it now - the voice over took a little bit.
Summing Up
Look, 2020 was challenging and problematic but the pace of the year and some of the isolation had their benefits as well. I feel pretty refreshed and ready to take on the challenges of 2021 - yeah, famous last words. I have five million ideas about what I want to do creatively and with the business, but that will be in Sunday's post.
Have you reflected on 2020? Did you discover some benefits in the weirdness of the year? I hope you were able to find something to appreciate.