The New Year

Fresh

Clear

Pristine

Inviting

Full of choice

Of opportunities

Of hope

Excitement

Expectation

Trepidation

Not wanting to make a wrong step

Not wanting to repeat past mistakes

Desire to create something wonderful

Something new

Something to be proud of

Trusting it's possible

Taking action

Seeing progress

Life full of purpose, connection and joy

Chantal Plowman

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2021! It's been a year since I started my bi-monthly blog posts to MAP (My Amazing-Year Plan). I had no idea when I started my blog last year that 2020 would be such a challenging journey. I am glad that this was a year that I documented with my blog posts. It helped me stay focussed on something positive each month. And as I read through my previous posts over the past year, I see that it was a wonderful year in spite of so many challenges and painful moments.

What was wonderful about this past year for me was that it reminded me of the power of the human spirit. I am encouraged to see how adaptable we all are. We might not like to change, but we are very capable of doing it. Even having to change the way I normally celebrate Christmas and New Year's wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I didn't want to change the way I celebrate the holidays. I missed being with my whole family, but the holidays still felt special. My husband and kids and I still had delicious meals, watched movies, played games, opened presents and just enjoyed a relaxing break together. I connected with friends and family through email, text, Zoom and Houseparty. I delivered Christmas treats to some friends in the neighbourhood and had brief, but lovely visits at the door or outside. One of my friends delivered special New Year's cocktails to me and my family on New Year's Eve. People were so friendly when I passed them on the path when I was out for a walk or run. Overall, I feel full of gratitude for how the holiday turned out.

Every Christmas I write our annual family Christmas Poem outlining all the significant events of the year. Normally it includes highlights of the year, our holidays, milestones and achievements. I wasn't looking forward to writing the poem this year because I thought the year would seem so uneventful. As I started writing, I was surprised at all the wonderful things that happened in this crazy year. We may not have gone on a big holiday or done all the things we had planned , but we really did have a great year. We had some things that we missed because of the virus. There have been moments of frustration and fatigue with the changes that we had to accept. But we did it. And we are continuing to do it. The more we've had to adapt, the better we have gotten at it.

One thought that I have had since the beginning of the shutdowns, is that the world will never be the same again. At first this thought made me sad. I was focussing on what might be lost because of all these changes. As I thought about it some more, I realized that the world would never be the same in the future even without the Coronavirus. Our world is continually changing. If we study history, it's clear that there are cycles that we go through and the cycles of history are speeding up all the time. And history teaches us that the people who thrive through these cycles and changes, are the ones who are quick to adapt. They are the people that look for opportunities as the world changes. They are the ones who look to the future instead of clinging to the past. Of course, it's important to preserve traditions that are precious to us, but we have to be willing to create new traditions.

So as I complete my final blog post, I would like to leave you with one last question to cap off this year. "What do you see as possible for you in this new year, in this new world environment?" Shifting our perspective from "what I can't do now" to "what is possible now", opens up so many more opportunities. In a recent conversation I had with an artist friend, she told me that she wasn't bothered by the Covid restrictions because she was so happy to have the time to work on her art. She seemed absolutely delighted with her life. What became clear to me in that conversation was, if you have a purpose or project to engage your talents, life is beautiful. So my wish for you in 2021 is to find that purpose or project or whatever it is that excites you to invest your time into. It could make this upcoming year your best year ever.

I am so grateful to those of you who have followed my blog throughout the year. And I want to leave you with this offer. If you want any help exploring ideas of what that purpose or project could be for you, I would be happy help you with that. Or if the project you're interested in pursuing is to write a book, I would love to work with you. I know that it is possible for anyone who has the desire to write a book to do it. I coached several people to write their books this past year and wrote one book this year too. I know from experience how much fun it is to have a creative project to invest my time into. It is satisfying to bring something that was once just an idea in my mind into reality. If you would like to have a casual chat about what might be possible for you, just connect with me through this site or email me at info@chantalplowman.com. I would love to see you create something wonderful for yourself in the New Year.

Thank you again for taking the time to read my monthly musings. I hope they offered you as much value as I got from writing them. I think making any type of progress in any area of life breeds happiness. At least it does for me. It feels good to grow. That's why I like Wayne Dyer's quote, "My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but to be better than I used to be." This is my goal too and you are welcome to adopt it yourself. Whatever your goals, I am wishing you love and laughter for 2021 and beyond! Life is beautiful - even in a pandemic!