2021 isn’t going to be the best year either.
By: Adrianne Munz
Tags: Mindfulness Practice, Mindset Shift, 2021, Mindset, Mindfulness

Credit: @becomingcaprine

2021 ISN’T GOING TO BE THE BEST YEAR EITHER. I see the same posts wishing for the year to end and counting down for the next year — year after year after year, which leaves me thinking — have you ever actually had a good year?* Perhaps the need to make 365 days “good” is clearly a set up for failure — NO ONE has 365 fantastic days. Well, some do! Not many, though. What if we moved away from setting up for failure and instead lived day by day — moment by moment? Imagine how much better your days, years, life would be when you’re not attempting to perfect an entire damn YEAR.

Stepping even further back from there, somewhere along the way it’s been forgotten that the HARD moments in life are what make for the BEST moments in life.* We don’t know joy without gut wrenching sadness. We don’t know success without a failure that crashes and burns. The “good” moments in life are so sweet because we know what the “bad” moments in life feel like. And — we’re humans. We’re on a sometimes 85 year long journey through life — you didn’t possibly expect it to be sunshine and rainbows that whole time, right? The second we wholeheartedly understand and EMBRACE the fact that “bad” is going to happen, the “bad” gets easier — it becomes a lesson, a teacher.* We learn to open our arms wide open and welcome it in, asking what it’s here to teach us, how it’s going to make us wiser, stronger.

I’ve had a good year. 2019 was a good year. 2018 was a good one too. In fact, I’ve had 29 really good years.* I’ve fought, I’ve lost, I’ve failed, I’ve put my foot in my mouth (Am I doing that again now? Tbd. Reminder: we don’t grow if we stay stuck, afraid to move.), I’ve worried, I’ve grieved — but I’ve also grown, succeeded, overcome, repaired, and loved — a LOT.

Just as there is darkness that falls every single night, there’s also light that comes up every single morning. Light does not exist without darkness.

Talk about your struggles, your pain. It’s what connects us as humans.* But don’t end there; don’t let your last word, your last thought before drifting off to bed be about your darkness; let it be about light. And, no, this isn’t some “love and light” bullshit, so I repeat: talk about your struggles and pain. Just don’t end there.

(And — stop setting yourself up for failure; 2021 isn’t going to be 365 days of sunshine and rainbows either. There are going to be bad days. But — there are also going to be good ones.)

*We HAVE to dive into the murky waters and question everything to create necessary change in this world. Studies have shown that the happier people are, the more likely they are to do genuine good for others, for humanity. If you are in a place of privilege in which a mindset switch is all that’s necessary to turn a “bad year” into a “good year”, please honor that privilege — and then do good for those who are up against a mountain of injustices that have inhibited them from good years on levels way more complex than not being able to socialize this year. And for those of you who lost loved ones from this uncontrolled virus, there aren’t enough words of condolences 🖤 2020 has been a dumpster fire of a year in endless ways. This post was written not to bypass hardships but to address the collective mindset that has infiltrated December year after year after year.