As we come to the end of 2021, the optimist in me is somehow surprised that no miracle has happened. How come nobody came to save us from this new reality of living with the COVID pandemic. I belong to a generation that was brought up with numerous ‘end of the world’ type movies with a strong hero and a happy ending. If you work hard and play our small part, eventually things will get better, I was told. Well, this time each of us has to step up and be a hero in his or her own way, it seems.
The battle is not out there with the rest of the world, but it is with our own mind and our own soul.
If you are forced to spend Christmas at home alone, in self-isolation or even worse in the hospital how do you keep yourself motivated to fight and to hope for a better future? A friend who returned home after a month of hospitalization told me that it was a vision of himself in a future moment that kept his hope. He is now appreciating life and the wonderful people in his life with a renewed gratitude.
After the shock and drama of 2020, this year proved to be in some way predictable. As with any dramatic change, we moved from the shock of 2020 lockdown, the anger a of street demonstrations and anti-vaccine campaigns to the acceptance of the fact that we have to live with the reality of changing pandemics and climate change. One of the most influential books I read in my youth is Steven R. Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people’ brings up the difference between Proactive focus, when positive energy enlarges the circle of influence you have and the Reactive focus, when negative energy reduces the circle of influence.
I think 2021 has finally given us the chance to reconsider our Circle of Influence and to make conscious choices about how we let our positive or negative emotions to influence us.
Through my executive coaching practice, I had the honour to support the personal learning journey of numerous clients who chose to invest in training their positive intelligence and mental fitness. Being of service for their learning and being a witness to their career achievements that followed was the most rewarding present of this year.
2021 has been a year of resilience. It has certainly been a year of change and resilience for me. In January I was growing my new business in The Netherlands and at the end of May I was joggling several speaking engagements with packing and moving my family to Texas, Houston.
What I learned is that you need to expect the unexpected and to stay focused on your Circle of Influence, day after day. We managed to settle in the new house in 45 days and the kids adapted easily to the new school. My coaching practice transitioned to the new realities and I got used to waking up really early in the morning. The hardest work was to make sure I keep my negative thoughts in check while waiting for things to fall in their place.
Throughout the move to a new country and a new social reality, the one thing that became clear to me is how lucky I am to share this new adventure with a husband that enjoys parenthood, changes and cultural differences as much as I do. When you can’t visit your family and old friends anymore being able to laugh and have fun together is a non-negotiable. That’s how the idea for my new book was born : Families as Teams (spoiler alert).
At the end of the year, let’s not forget to raise a glass and thank the person who was our companion throughout the hard-working year of 2021.
Happy Holidays !
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Steliana Economu is an executive leadership coach specialised in positive intelligence. If you like this article and you want to enjoy more of this type of resources follow mothersasleaders.com