Having just crawled through the wreckage of a year in which our hopes for a return to normalcy – even a post-pandemic normalcy, some hybrid new world – were dashed by Delta and Omicron, I’m looking into 2022 with my fingers over my eyes, like a kid watching a horror movie.  What’s ahead?  The next Greek letter is Pi, but it seems unlikely that the WHO will pick that one, since it already represents a widely known mathematical constant.  So, watch out for Rho, or Sigma.  They have scientific and mathematical meanings too, but more for specialists than the general population.  Businesspeople might remember ‘Six Sigma’, but its day seems to have come and gone.  Still, if WHO passes on those, Tau is next, and that has scientific and mathematical associations as well, but also meant ‘resurrection’ in ancient times – something I definitely don’t want to connect with Covid.  Enough, already!

What resolutions can one make in the midst of such uncertainty?  I’m an optimist, and yet my optimism has been proven wrong time and again in 2021.  The only ancient wisdom that seems to apply comes from Japan:  nana korobi ya oki  or, ‘fall down 7 times, get up eight’.  So that, suitably modernized, is my first resolution.

I Will Keep on Truckin’.  I was catching up recently with a client whose  perspective I respect and commiserating with him on all the adversity he had personally faced in recent times.  His response impressed me.  He said, ‘whenever obstacles get in the way, I get excited, because it means that some of my competition facing the same things will give up.  If I keep going, my odds will keep getting better.’ That’s real positive thinking.  Nana korobi ya oki.  Keep getting back up and those odds will keep getting better.

I Will Focus on the Basics. Many speakers’ schedules include a good deal of enforced idleness still, as most big public events have not yet returned.  It’s a time, therefore, to look at your basic systems and offerings.  What can you retire, restructure, re-tool, reshape, or rethink?  No one really knows what the new hybrid work world will look like when it does finally lurch into being, but you can be sure that we will want fresh offerings.  Which leads me to. . . .

And I Will Invent Something New.  One of the best ways to keep yourself energized and ultimately relevant is to start something entirely new.  Is it time for you at last to write that book, or design that online course, or start that coaching program?  It would be a shame to look back at the pandemic one day and see it as a lost opportunity.  We all tend to fill up uncertainty with busyness; now’s the chance to fill it up instead with fresh thinking.

I Will Pay It Forward. If we look only at our own little piece of the global puzzle, the picture can seem hard or dark.  This time is a great chance to reach out to someone and offer help, insight, or commiseration.  Connecting in this way will provide a sense of perspective and balance.  Not just because someone somewhere will always be better off or worse off than you, but because the act of helping is a profoundly hopeful one.  We feel more capable when we help someone else, and that feeling stays with us long after the work is done.

I Will Practice Gratitude.  Finally, as difficult and unprecedented as the worst global pandemic since the Spanish Flu has been for humanity, it’s nonetheless important to be grateful for all that has been done – and in a very short time.  I’m grateful beyond words for the scientists who have given us vaccines, the first responders who have worked endless hours to keep us safe, and the citizens around the world who have put the public health before their own by staying put, wearing masks, and avoiding risks.  We will get through this.

Here’s wishing you exciting new horizons in 2022.