Hindsight is 2020

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying before, “Hindsight is 2020.”

The answers are always clearer when you’re looking back at the situation than when you’re staring right at it.

Although the expression uses 2020 to insinuate perfect vision, I intended the pun referring to the year “2020.”  

The year 2020 shone a light on the things we love and the things we hate. It made us realize what we appreciate (even if we used to complain about those things before) and what we were glad to be rid of (even if we did those things mindlessly before.)

With quarantine, business closures, event cancellations, and time on our hands, we had a unique opportunity to reflect on the life we’d been living pre-Covid and analyze if we’d been living in alignment with our values, our priorities, and our goals. Well, we could have had that opportunity, but we may have been too consumed by the massive disruption in our lives to make those assessments.

When pain, heartache, fear, uncertainty, and chaos are present, it’s hard to see anything else. 2020 might have felt like you landed in a pile of poop, and for a long time you’ve been swimming in it without a clue how you to get out of it. Some people wish they could have slept right through 2020 to avoid all the crap they went through. No one wants to be uncomfortable or sad or hurting.

But, like my friend Betsy says, poop is necessary to make fertilizer and fertilizer is necessary to make the tree grow strong and vibrant. You’ve been making a lot of fertilizer, my friend, and you have grown stronger than you realize.

The good news is that if you’re reading this, you have survived the year and begun a new one. Even if your circumstances are still the same, a new year brings fresh energy, and a renewed sense of hope that life will get better.

With a full year ahead of you and a difficult one behind you — this is the perfect moment for hindsight to work its magic — if you’re willing to take the time to look back. Mel Robbins has a free online mini-course called Simple Steps to an Incredible Year. I’m sharing it with you because the first module does a great job taking you through a series of questions that will help you reflect on your last twelve months and put on your hindsight glasses.

We are always in training for something bigger. That’s why we can’t skip the hard parts. But as we bear through it, we can use the wisdom and the lessons we’ve learned to become a better version of ourselves and design a more meaningful life than ever before.

May 2021 be a year full of purpose, meaning, and beautiful reflections. Happy New Year, friend.

A Moment of Clarity 

It can take a long time to gain the perspective that hindsight offers. But I bet one day we’ll all look back and understand that 2020 was the year that gave us the perspective we didn’t know we needed. 

After all, hindsight IS 2020.