More Important and Less Important
2019–2020: One Year Later
2019–2020: One Year Later
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing one year ago? It was summertime in the northern hemisphere with longer, heat-filled days, and cooler cozy evenings. The sun shone most of the time, and even the rainy days were a welcome respite from the summer humidity.
The trees were full of leaves and flowers and plants bloomed everywhere. The laughter of children playing was everywhere, and visits with family and friends were frequent.
Your friends, children, grandchildren, and maybe even you had just graduated from high school or university, with real ceremonies and actual people attending and cheering you on. The plans were in motion for the next steps-of-life events.
There were days at the beach, and lots of swimming, volleyball playing, and sand-filled picnic foods. You even a nice vacation planned away from home before the coming of fall signaled back to school and back to regular schedules. Even if you didn’t really like your job, at least you had one.
You may not have been fully conscious of it, but there were things that were very important to you, and things that were less important to you.
In case you hadn’t noticed, there have been many big changes from last year at this time to this year. Those changes may have caused you to think about what is most important to you, and what is less important. The rankings may or may not have changed from then to now.
Here are seven things that were important to me last year, and they still are, although in a different way.
My 5 Most Important and Less Important Things — Still
My Peace of Mind. Protecting my personal peace did not occur to me much before 2019, but after a series of unfortunate events in the few years before and including 2019, I realized that I had previously allowed negative events and negative people to upset my emotions and destroy my peace of mind and my personal space. It has not been easy, but I am learning to manage my emotions and finally realize that negative people and negative events can only adversely affect me if I allow them to do so. With all of the upsetting things that have happened since March of 2020, I am protecting my personal peace even more.
My Health. It has been said that without your health, it is hard to accomplish anything else. I have always been one who didn’t really like to go to see doctors, and who really didn’t like hospitals. One of my ongoing goals is to be more consistent in my exercise routine, and since we’ve had much more time at home since COVID-19, I’ve taken the time to do more cooking at home with real food and much less eating of fast food.
My Family. My family has always been my #1 priority, but after the loss of my mother at the end of 2018, almost ten years after the loss of my dad, my family is even more important to me. I have a large family, including my very large extended family. Fortunately, we are all very close, even though like most large families, there have been ups and downs. Since COVID-19 has taken so very many people so quickly (including thirty friends and acquaintances to date), making sure my family is safe and stays close is very important to me.
My Time. Because I am self-employed as a solopreneur and because my husband and I have no children living at home, I am able to pretty much set my own schedule. That can have its good side and its bad side. It is said that time is your most precious commodity because once gone, you can never get it back. I work hard daily to manage my personal and professional time effectively, but again the loss of so many lives and the loss of the sense of control brought on by COVID-19 makes managing my time even more important because tomorrow is not promised.
My Love. I think about love in both tangible and intangible ways. Of course I deeply love my husband, my children and grandchildren, my extended family, and my dear close friends. But this past year has helped me to realize that it is important to love more intangible things that directly and indirectly affect me and so many others.
Have you thought about what has changed in your life and your perceptions of important things for you since last year? How aware are you of those changes? Are you actively doing anything about those changes?
About Me
I am a native Detroiter, a wife, mother, grandmother, solopreneur, and homeowner. I would love for you to follow me on my personal Facebook and on my personal Instagram. Any opinions expressed in this publication are my own.
I invite you to read the stories in my other publications: Your Business Your Brand Creatively and Detroit Ink Publishing.