The Gifts 2020 Gave to Us

Welcome to episode number 83 of The Determined Mom Show. In this episode, I want to go back and explore some of the gifts that 2020 gave us. I know it was a crazy year, and there is no year that we can compare, at least not in my lifetime, and probably not in your lifetime, to 2020.

We all had amazing expectations. We thought it would be a banner year for our businesses and families, and we couldn’t have been more wrong, and possibly we couldn’t have been more.

I want to dive into my top 10 favorite things that came out of 2020 being the weirdest year ever. The first thing is embracing change. We were all. Forced to immediately change our lives, change every aspect of our life. Things that we never even considered could change, and with that came many different shifts and changes in where we went.

Where we didn’t go, how we got there if we took our kids. So many changes happened in 2020, which is probably one of my favorite things because I love change and I love, you know, when things are different, and it keeps me more excited about life. It may have been harder for you if you don’t love change.

But I love change, and I think just for all of us to be forced into accepting things as they were and that kind of thing, I think it makes us more flexible as people and as moms and as business owners to be able to embrace those changes as they. So number two is the ability to work from home.

I’ve been working from home for about three and a half years. However, many people just got thrown into that work-from-home experience this past year. And some of them probably love it. Some of them probably hate it, but it is a great experience. I would not want to go out into the world and work and do all that, especially during a pandemic.

So for many people, working from home was a blessing and not something they did not like. So that’s important to focus on the blessings of 20. The third thing is virtual networking. Again, I’ve been doing virtual networking for about three and a half years because I deal with all my clients, prospective clients, and coworkers or business associates online.

I enjoyed the fact that everyone embraced online networking pretty quickly. By the end of March, everybody was like, okay, this is what we’re doing, and we’re online now, and here we go. So that is a huge blessing, and just seeing companies shift and understand.

The future is virtual, and there’s no reason for them to have offices and huge overhead when they can easily have their employees work from home. So virtual networking is one of my favorite things, and I will launch my virtual networking group and events; I’m not going to say group because it’s not exclusive.

Anyone can attend, and it is called 3 37 Networking. And that is how much each event costs to attend. So $3 and 37 cents, you only pay for those you follow. And it will be an amazing experience because it’s a virtual experience similar to what you would find at a conference. You can get up, go to different tables, and meet different people.

You’re not stuck in a. Session with people that maybe you don’t connect with or people that really could reciprocate or, or do anything for your business, or you can’t do anything for theirs. So there will be that ability to move around and meet the right people, and it will be really exciting. So a non-business slash kind of business issue, that came up in 2020 is the racial issues, I should say, the racism.

That reared its head after the death of George Floyd. Now, I am thankful that these issues have come to light. I wish they hadn’t had to come to light in the death of George Floyd, but the fact that they did come to light, Racism became, came to the surface. It’s always there, but if you’re not of color, of any color, then you won’t see it, you know?

And I think it’s a really important thing that came to light, and it gave us a really good picture of who is in our lives and our business relationship. Is subtly racist, overtly racist, who, you know, all of those things. It all just brought it all to the surface, and I am very thankful for that because I can now choose who I do business with based on my beliefs and whether or not someone.

Supports the All Lives Matter movement or not. So the fifth thing that came out of 2020 as a blessing is knowing who you’re exposed to, and taking precautions, even daily, to prevent illness. So I know for sure that there are people in our life. Wait to wash their hands as they should.

And there are so many different things, but it’s also those who kind of, I don’t know, risk, are willing to risk their lives or your life for silly reasons. So, it is a blessing because it exposes the true heart of people and the true thinking process behind them. So it might not be essential for you, but it’s also necessary for me.

So then that way, I know how people feel and understand where they stand on things. Number six is going to be family time. This is probably one of my favorites, so I should move it up. But these are not necessarily in order. Family time has taken on a new meeting. I mean, we’re with our families all the time in 2020 and now 21.

It’s definitely taken on a new meaning, giving you more time to get to know your kids, laugh, and enjoy being with your family. That is a huge, huge thing, and I know it’s also brought out some negative things with people being cooped up together, but I am choosing to focus on the positive, and I hope you are as.

The next thing, which is really important for me, is holidays with boundaries. So typically, on holiday; we just moved back to my home state of Pennsylvania and are now close to my family. And that brings up issues because we don’t necessarily like going to everyone’s house and doing everything.

And we like to have a nice relaxing Christmas day. By ourselves as a family in our home. And the pandemic allowed us to. Have a built-in boundary for our Christmas, where, you know, like, okay, if you want to come to our house, you can; if not, no worries. And we also visited my parents a few days before Christmas.

So then that way, we could do. The whole, like seeing them in their house and that kind of thing. But I love the boundaries that Covid is instilling in us and like, okay, no, it’s not okay to just come over to someone’s house and eat dinner. And we’re very strict about our visits and.

We minimize our visits. We don’t hug or do many things that other people might think are, you know? Okay. But I love the fact that Covid has enforced boundaries. The number eight on my list is that we have a new President, 2020 gave us the gift of Joe Biden, and whether you like him or not, I feel like it is a step in the right direction for our country to get back to kind of business as usual, or maybe not business as usual.

That’s probably not the right term, but some sort of sense of normalcy and decency and common sense. That is number eight, and the pandemic brought that about because of the current administration’s handling. Well, they’re handling Covid. So, the ninth thing, which is something silly, is takeout drinks.

So when we lived in Washington, which was recent, we were able to order food and then also order drinks. So we could order margaritas, we could order. You know, any drink and they would have it ready for takeout. That is so awesome. And I love it because you can get a real margarita.

I need to learn how to make a margarita at home; it tastes like what you can get at a Mexican restaurant. So our favorite restaurant always allowed us to order and pick up our margaritas. So that was. And number 10 is online ordering. Now, you could do this before 2020, however. You can get pretty much anything you want now curbside, and you pull up to a store, pick it up, or even deliver it.

I order all of our groceries online and have them delivered, so I don’t have to go into the store and I don’t have to worry about the kids and just so many things. Also, I’m pretty antisocial, or whatever you call it. Oh, introvert. That’s what they call it. And I don’t enjoy being around people, and I have social anxiety, so the grocery store is one of the worst places to go.

So online ordering is my other favorite thing of 2020. Please also look back on 2020 and find those blessings where it might be hard to find them. But whatever is a gift to you, I encourage you to write it down and reflect on the year and how each of those things impacted yourself, your family, and your business.

I hope you have an amazing 2021. It is a new year, and we will do things differently than last year in our businesses. So I would love to hear about what you did differently in 2021. Thank you. And as always, you can leave a review wherever you’re listening to this, on iTunes or Stitcher or where. It is greatly appreciated, and if you can subscribe and share with your friends, that is also greatly appreciated. I hope you have a great week.