My family created a tradition on New Years Day a few years ago with our kids. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the year that’s just was and set our intentions for the year to come. Our ceremony begins with treating ourselves to burgers, fries, and milkshakes at our favorite burger joint in Seattle. The table talk is usually unstructured, but always introspective, even for our 5 year old. We end the meal by selecting a single word, or short phrase, that that sets our intent for the new year. We always depart pondering how things may turn out 365 days from here.

Presence

When my wife asked me what my word for 2020 was, I couldn’t remember it. This actually isn’t surprising, it’s our typical annual tradition and it takes me time to recall. I tend to focus on the intent of the word vs the word itself each year, and enjoy the act of trying to recall and reflect on the word 365’ish days later. My word for 2020 was presence, thinking back to January 1st of 2020, unbeknownst to us, on the cusp of Covid-19 and all that would become, it was an extremely interesting choice. I chose this word to reflect how important my family was to me, and a recognition that I was not always present with them when they needed me. I have always known I could do better at striking a work life balance that’s meaningful to both, work and life. My intent was to find better ways to balance this. Upon reflection, 2020 sure had something else in mind for me that seems to have taken this word and beat me over the head with it, and in some ways, as crazy as 2020 has been… I love it for this reason alone. I have spent more time, and found more ways, to balance the life that I love with them than I ever would have otherwise.

2020 was a weird year, there has been plenty said about how it’s impacted the world in various ways. As I write this retrospective, I realize this may just be piling on to the same void folks are tossing their thoughts into. In some ways, this is for me, but I hope if you’ve made it here and are reading this, there is something here for you too.

Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash