Think back to a year ago from today. What did your life look like? Where did you envision yourself to be in the next year? What did your goals and dreams look like?
Wherever you were, I bet you would have never guessed that you would be in the middle of a global pandemic a year later.
I remember it being the weekend before starting my new job – a job that I have now spent more time working remote than I have actually being around my co-workers.
I spent the weekend in Kansas City celebrating my best friend’s birthday. We were golfing during the days, going out to the bars at night, and to top it off, we went to a football game on Sunday at the infamous Arrowhead Stadium, which is home to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Life was good. The weekend activities definitely helped ease the nerves I had about starting my new job on Monday morning. After the football game, I boarded a flight, got home at 11pm, and started a new job the next morning at 8 am.
I haven’t seen my best friend since. Not only that, but I haven’t really traveled since.
A lot changes within a year. Heck, a lot changes within a few months. Just four months after this weekend getaway, the world went into lockdown with most of us thinking we would be back to work within a matter of a few short weeks. And yet, here we are 8 months later having adapted to what has become known as “the new normal.”
This past year has been a challenge for everybody. I don’t think there’s one person out there who can say that their life hasn’t been negatively impacted in one way or another. But, despite the negatives, the pandemic has also positively impacted our lives as well, even if we don’t quite know how. It has challenged us, it has made us reflect on our beliefs and what’s most important in our lives. It has taught us many lessons about ourselves and the world around us that we would have never of been exposed to.
The crazy thing is, it’s all in the matter of less than a year.
I guess that’s the point I’m trying to make; you never know where you are going to be in a year or what your life is going to look like. There are so many different possibilities as to what can happen. Your only job is to simply do your best each and every single day and try to become better than you were yesterday.
I wanted to share this today for two reasons.
First, because there’s someone out there who needs it right now. There’s someone out there who is having a bad day, a stressful day, and/or just a day where they simply aren’t feeling like themselves. Use this as hope and inspiration for what’s ahead. Despite what you are going through today, you never know how much your life can change over the course of the next year. Just keep going, keep giving it your all, and keep doing your best.
The second reason I wanted to share this is because I need to remind myself to keep going, to keep giving it my all, and to keep doing my best. I have spent the day lost in my thoughts, a little down on myself, and just not feeling good enough. It’s crazy that this is how I am feeling given that I was the most confident and happy person just 24 hours earlier. But… that’s just life. Life changes on a moments notice, and much like we don’t know how our life will look in a year from now, we also don’t know what it will look like tomorrow.
So whether you’re having a good bad, a bad day, or anything in between, just remember that your life is going to look different every day from here on out. No day is the same, and that’s the beauty of life. Use that as a sign of hope to make tomorrow a better day than today no matter how today went.
– Michael
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