| For some of you, this is your first day back in the “office”, whatever that even means anymore. For others, you may still have another week or so to process the societal construct of a new year shift. Either way, a sense of renewal is customary this time of year, as is the gentle reminder that how we choose to renew, dictates our mindset for the foreseeable future. In fact, every day is a chance for actionable renewal. Every night we sleep so that our brain cells can repair and “remove toxins that build up during the day and may hinder our brain’s ability to process input” (Johns Hopkins Medicine Journal). What we choose to pay attention to during the day is also a chance for renewal, making space for different choices when circumstances and behaviors no longer serve us. This means that every chance in which we choose to be present, is as momentous as that midnight ball that didn’t drop this year (or did it?), to make shifts, set priorities, and start practicing, once again. 2020 was an extraordinary ‘year’ to say the least. An unanticipated (for most) redefining disruption in the best and worst of ways. Most strikingly we saw our innate human nature in action—to collaborate, to problem solve, to be creative and to evolve together—even with the required limitations of physical distance. True, not everyone participated, and the circumstances are far from over. Still for many it was an opportunity to practice what we are best at—what we’ve forgotten in a civilization that rewards individual success over collective pursuit, a civilization where conformity is encouraged and precedented expertise keeps us from our ability to imagine better ways. With strife and with all the many silver linings that appeared more visible than usual (or maybe we were just able to pay better attention), the year ends and begins again with a clear promise of regeneration—That we can change our ways, if we set our minds to it. So set your mind to pursue extraordinary ideas and opportunities, accepting the constancy of change. Abandon the illusion of a ‘normal’, the illusion that anything can ever ‘stay the same’. We are moving exponentially into the future, accelerated by technology and our human capacity for innovation (how else were we able to mobilize for a vaccine in less than a year?). Reclaim your mind’s capacity for wonder, for exploring what is possible, rather than reflexing into the comforting memory of a past that no longer exists. Regenerate your way of thinking so that you can participate in the collective regeneration of society and it’s relationship with the world that we live in that is being demanded of us everyday. So today, tomorrow, and the next day, embrace the extraordinary, and reclaim your mind’s potential—it’s exclusive human superpower for insight, imagination, and innovation—because there is no other way. |