What a Year!

A year of less distraction but more illumination

In just less than 24 hours, we will bid farewell to the year 2020. I wonder how many of us actually feel the same with these thoughts:

• Oh gosh, a year has passed, I don’t even know when did I actually start off the year 2020?

• It seems like everything slowed down this year!

• Many great plans were aborted!

• The pandemic sucks and we are stuck!

Not matter how you may be feeling about this year, the year-end is finally here. In no time, we will have 2021 knocking at our doors. Here comes the yearly ritual of doing reflection and setting resolutions. I would sum up my experience with the year 2020 with these words: "a year of less distraction but more illumination."

As I pen down my year-end reflection now, I am counting the many blessings in disguise during this very challenging year. Personally I think 2020 may not be a year of abundance but it is a year of productivity and learning curve for me. The shocking truth is, the level of productivity I achieved this year itself can be 3-fold higher than what I achieved for the past 2 years despite the stay-at-home season.

If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are. ― Cal Newport

Sharing with you this quote of my favourite author, Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Reading this book during the pandemic lockdown is indeed timely. It gives me a dose of motivation for my learning in various aspects. Its contents has internalized into my conviction. It is not so much about talents at all. If you want to be really good at a skill, you just have to keep on doing it and producing the work. Eventually you will become so good at a specific skill or field even without you realizing it.

Let me unpack for you my learning experience with the acronym CALF. These are the skill sets which I have the chance to explore and excel this year. Why CALF? It is because I work hard like a little cow. Staying at home is definitely not a vacation for me.

C: Culinary

With the umpteen hours of cooking and dining at home, I have enhanced the art and science of my culinary skill to higher-order thinking. Cooking and baking for my family's consumption and self-sufficiency has never been so frequent and intense before. From breakfast, lunch, dinner, to occasional afternoon tea snack, all can be cooked or baked and served right from home. Thanks to YouTube, I can take my inspiration of preparing international cuisines into reality.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you my cooking and baking portfolio for the year 2020:

A: Art

I have found a long lost friend - art. In my growing up years, I never really have the space to cultivate my passion in art. This year, the stay-at-home confinement has liberated me from much distraction, allowing myself for the soul-searching enlightenment. I am able to enjoy the moment by moment inspiration in the mundane daily life. It’s about taking a pause and learning to appreciate art around me.

At the same time, I pick up some graphic design work as a respond to the needs of my church ministries in the social media platform. What a joy to learn up a new skill set in this imperfect season. It is my hope that creating unique graphic illustrations would boost up my church’s online presence as well as providing suffix information to our targeted audience.

L: Literary & Learning

One of my new year resolutions I set at the end of last year was to brush up my writing skill. The prompting to write within me has been there for years but I've never really paid attention to it. It takes a pandemic lockdown to awaken myself to write! I feel great once I started writing. Alas, how slow am I to discover this wonderful gift of writing.

With the opportunity given to me, I am glad to use my gift of writing to earn not for a living just yet for now. Well, I get to brush up my writing skill and earn some pocket money at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone. Certainly, I’m on the winning side!

What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more. — James Clear Atomic Habits

With the online learning platform mushrooming now during the stay-at-home season, one can really embark on a vast experience of learning. Now I can still tuck my children to beds right before my online class. Being a young mother, I see it as a blessing in disguise. In normal days, I would have to leave home and drive to the specific venue for the onsite class in the evening, leaving my youngest child in his separation anxiety and my husband in his struggles to calm the boy. The thought of such chaos often dampens my learning spirit which resulted in learning plan put on hold first. This year, I'm glad that I have completed a 6-week short course on “Journey to Intimacy: Emotional Intelligence & Personal Development Curriculum” by Focus on the Family Malaysia. This self-enrichment course has been on my bucket list for quite a long while.

F: Fitness

This year, I have made a significant progress in my workout routine. It has been upgraded from 3 days per week to 5 days per week. Besides, I get to add in variation for my workout regime. Previous years, I have been working on LISS elliptical training and targeted muscle workout only. This year, I push myself for more challenging types like weighted exercise & HIIT. My health goals are reducing body fat, building up more muscle mass, and increasing basal metabolic rate. Being a full time stay-at-home mom, workout session is my precious me-time to sweat out and feel good!

I have shared with you my learning curve in this challenging year of 2020. These learning milestones are enrichment that makes me stronger from within. And this learning curve is a continuous improvement. I have not reached there yet. In the bleakest crossover juncture of 2020-2021, I am writing this article to remind myself that learning must go on in building my inner strength.

Indeed the year 2020 has brought us all into an uncharted territory. It is undeniably a tough year for us. Nevertheless, we are all in this together. Let us give ourselves a pat on our shoulders that we have been through such difficult year. Though we may not know what will unfold in the year 2021, but we can be consoled in the fact that we are still alive and we survived this tough year.

What lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

We have experts predicting that the worst is yet to come for the year 2021. It is distressing to hear this, I personally feel so. No doubt our external environment can affect us significantly, the pandemic, the daily reporting number, the economy, the water disruption, the weather, and the list goes on. But let’s remember that it is what lies within us that makes us overcomers. May you take each little steps to build up your inner self to be strong and resilient come what may in the new year.

Have a safe and healthy new year!