Firstly I hope this finds you and yours starting 2021 safe and well with thoughts for a fresh start but being mindful to remember aspects of last year rather than wanting to bury it all never to be spoken of again.

If you were to select a song to describe 2020 as a place marker in your mind, what would that song be and why?

When I published my book “Full Circle – Building Resilience in Business and Life from the Jagged Edges of PTSD” I wrote about how “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club was my “disaster song” for 1983 because it was number one in the UK music charts in the week when not one or two but three huge things happened in my young life. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the song, because I did, but that it reminded me of the timing of those events together.

Sailing

My song for 2020 is “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. The lyrics are nearly all positive and fanciful except for the line

“And if the wind is right you can sail away and find serenity.”

The realistic words are “And if the wind is right” because of course sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t and that is completely outside our control.

For most of us, most of 2020 was mostly outside of our control, me included.

Some of My 2020

For me, 2020 was a year to unexpectedly experience “Death by Facetime” (through my phone camera) when my mum had a stroke and died peacefully in the UK. Ordinarily I would have been there but as it was we had intimate funerals on both sides of the world.

It was a year without travel other than a quick trip to Sydney at the start to farewell my “Sydney Mum”. There were no trips to Geraldton or anywhere else to PEPP® Up people live via my Purpose + Energy + Pleasure + Profit tools

2020 was a year when my distraction from grief was an immediate few months of significant health challenges: a massive burn, a fractured foot, a melanoma – all gone thankfully – and a gallbladder gone too! All this meant a year when I was ordered to move less than at any other time in my life… I’m so looking forward to exercising properly soon to truly feel the vitality again especially as it is my favourite word and topic to talk about!

These were all huge events that could have scarred my year as only being negative. Other things happened too though… better things.

Some More of My 2020

2020 was a year to consolidate a new personal relationship by physically isolating for 2 months on a 34 foot yacht called Vitality on Moreton Bay off Brisbane. That may well be why the “Sailing” song came to mind but there are other reasons too that I’ll come to.

We enjoyed the serenity of rainbows, sunrises and sunsets and, when fishing for dinner, we avoided the dolphins and sharks.

It was a year when no travel meant I, along with the rest of the world, worked from home in a very different way… especially when home was the boat. I mistakenly thought as I’d been working from home for years that I’d just transition locations but it was far from easy. If you had your work location changed what worked for you and what didn’t? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

2020 was a year when the yacht started a massive transformation from a classic tired 1977 vessel to one living up to its Vitality name with lots of fresh pink flamingo fun!

It was a year when friends rallied around me like never before with food and flowers as I went from one hurdle when I was incapacitated to the next. I certainly felt “the love”.

2020 was a year when I continued to give too though, most notably my volunteering for “R U OK? Day” which promotes how to have conversations to reduce death by suicide.

It was a year when my most significant pivot was a weekly online huddle for some of my clients via Zoom – which they named “Club PinkWise”, and then more formally presenting from the boat or my lounge in Brisbane to a meeting room in Geraldton 4,600 km away. One client showed up every week from March to September.

Silver Linings

2020 was a year when the biggest silver lining was supporting my dad from afar: I have spoken to him in the UK every day since 10 July when mum became unwell and we’ve Zoom’d just about every day too. At almost 90, he’s become a tech champion!

It was a year when I learned a bit about videos and my greatest challenge and success was a fully edited tribute played at mum’s funeral. Did you have the capacity or interest or necessity to learn something new? Some people were flat out surviving day to day and there were certainly days when I felt like that too.

It was year to be incredibly grateful for where I live. Yes, it’s been incredibly weird, but for the most part my little patch of the world has continued many things nearly normally, although that changed today suddenly of course with an almost immediate 3 day lockdown announced!

Sailing… again

So back to the “Sailing” song and my reasons for choosing it. Well now you know that 2020 was the year that I first lived and worked on a yacht and when sailing was a natural part of moving to stay safe from inclement weather.

And yes, for sure “if the wind is right you can sail away and find serenity”.

There is a whole lot more outside of your control though that stretches your thinking and physicality, just as 2020 did.

For example, even if the wind is right and you set a course and follow a route through a channel within markers you can still run aground because the seabed has moved with currents and the channel needs dredging or the maps need updating, or some other reason. This actually happened when we ran aground returning from our maiden voyage a year ago!

Just like when you and me and everyone else made plans for 2020 and had something much more impactful than us cause them to be cancelled or changed. What did you do to try and maintain your vitality? For me, and something that I recommend others do is try and find something to be grateful for whatever is going on. And that’s really hard sometimes.

When we ran aground I was grateful that it was only a couple of hours until the tide turned so we could experience that old aphorism made famous by John F Kennedy “A rising tide lifts all boats” – although when he said it he was referring to the economy rather than actually boats!

And another example, of even if the wind is right, which it was, and you set a course, and the sea is calm, sometimes carnage still occurs and things get broken! There was a time when we were sailing in a channel and two large fast motor boats overtook us, one each side, at exactly the same time. We rocked from the wash so much that things got broken.

We have a plan to make inside as secure as if everything is being tumbled in a washing machine… but the renovations are not at that point yet.

I was so grateful that we had just got rid of some rubbish (as the bin fell over and the lid off) but mostly for the reminder to be more careful putting things away before setting sail. And I think that’s like getting your house in order whatever is going on. Making small steps each day towards how you want your life to be so that when HUGE unexpected things happen you can bounce back more quickly and be more open to even thinking about how your vitality is.

Vitality is important because it helps us maintain our mental health and we need to do all we can to preserve that, and build up a bank of PEPPenergy to have in reserve when “The Universe” dishes us another serve of something completely unexpected… as it did last year and continues to do.

Expect the Unexpected
Expecting the unexpected has always been a worthwhile rule to live by. We are taught though to make plans or goals and “Go for it”. I completely agree and share that as part of my PEPPpurpose message. Just as when we’re driving a car we need to check the wing and rear vision mirrors, for what’s going on around us, or when sailing continually check 360 degrees around, we need to do that with all aspects of our lives, both personally and in business.

We need to check in regularly and “adjust the sails” to adapt to what is going on around us, both in our intimate personal world and our community in the wider world.

Is there anything I may help you with?

After some re-grouping time myself, I’ll be back on deck in a couple of weeks to help with improving the vitality of others including you.

Early in 2021 I’ll be offering a variety of options – online and in person, half day and longer workshops – to help people PEPP® up and “kick start” the year with some different perspectives.

The first event is a FREE 50 minute webinar on Thursday 21st January 2021 at 11 am AEST called Why VITALITY Is Important Now & How To Improve YOURS. Please click here to register!

It’s Time To PEPP® Up

I wore these fun ‘n funky glasses (that my friend got the previous year in New York) just one more time until midnight on 31st December 2020.

In the lead up to that I thought of the people who talk about “burying the year” or never speaking of it again – rather like the sand image above where the 2020 has been washed away. I took both these photos on 1 January 2020 in Sydney when none of us had any idea how the year would unfold.

I will not wash away any of 2020 but rather take the lessons and silver linings, and the knowledge that even the heartache – of which there was plenty – serves to make me stronger in my resolve to support PEPPing Up as many people in my world as I can. More than ever the world now needs more VITALITY.

I’m EXCITED about new possibilities in 2021 … are YOU coming on the journey with me?

Contemplation led me to choose “Sailing” as my song of the year. I’d love to know what yours is… do please share…

Until next time, on your journey to more vitality,  please remember to take care of yourself throughout 2021. Hopefully we’ll catch up in person and not just over Zoom… but let’s start with Zoom on 21st January. Please click here to register NOW!

I wish you peace, great health, vitality and fun whilst staying safe!