What has 2020 taught us so far?

Five months into this year and 2020 has already given us lessons of a lifetime. Wouldn’t you agree?

If not, then hopefully you will, by the time you finish reading this. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Here are the top five on my list.

World can Change Overnight

While each of us had started taking some, if not all, precautions pretty early during the year things began to hit us hard when precautions were slowly mandated in our day to day activities leading to Janta Curfew and then Lockdown 1.0. The world around us literally changed overnight. Or maybe we were too resistant to realize it had been coming all along. For me, being an IT professional, the huge shift had been to switch to what we now call the new normal, Work From Home.

Appreciate the Homemakers

Often in our busy lives, we forget what it takes to run a house. And now that we have been staying home and our eyes meet the efforts taken to maintain the equilibrium of the house much more than before, we have begun appreciating the homemakers, in most cases, mothers. A lot of us even lend a helping hand to take off some of the burdens and make their lives a little easier while we share the time together at home. Why didn’t we see this earlier? Well, better late than never.

Appreciate the Helpers

Most of us did not realize when things were running smoothly how much we needed the helpers we had been so privileged to have to continue the momentum of our lives. Be it the domestic help, the cook, the delivery guys, the cab drivers, anybody and everybody who helped us take care of things we found no time for. When all this ends and we go back to life as we knew it I hope we will treat them with a little more respect and appreciation.

Being Human

The lockdown was bound to bring major problems in several lives, more specifically daily wage workers. While we had our salaries or savings to help us during these tough times there were hundreds of people who didn’t know how they would provide the next meal to their family. And in these unforeseen circumstances a lot of us, and I am hoping all of us, got together and played a part to help them. Be it as big as being on the field and helping them out directly or as small as keeping them in our prayers while we fight the pandemic together. This crisis has, in a way, helped us all outshine our humanity and help us feel more human again.

Nothing is Impossible

Before the lockdown, we were always too busy to step out of our comfort zone and get back to that old hobby or try out a new one. Being at home gave us the much needed time to rejuvenate and refocus our energy on our To-Do List that had been eating dust for as long as we can remember. A lot of us got back to our love for cooking, gardening, dancing, singing, cleaning, and whatnot. We were able to unlock our potential and experience the joy of having just the time we always needed. And even if you have not explored anything at all and taken a break, even that’s something one needs. Giving your mind and body the required rest in these stressful times is also one of the best things you could have done. Also now we know, nothing is impossible. We just have to refocus and readjust our priorities and live a little more than we did before 2020 gave us the lessons it did.

I hope these lessons helped you reconsider how you look at 2020. A lot more lessons to come while the rest of the year progresses. Let’s make the most of what we have. Cheers.