2020 Takeaways

2020. What a powerful year! Disruptive and disorienting, troublesome and traumatic. The year of a pandemic — and protests — around the world. And then some. Easily a year for the history books. You might also say, easily the most transformational year so far for the modern world. It managed to stop the world in its tracks, after all, what else can claim that feat?

Words like "lockdown", "quarantine" and "social distancing" found a whole new meaning this year, one that nobody in our generation will ever perceive differently. We're also never going to look down on people for using masks and hand sanitizers in public (in India), finally those things are no longer reserved for the hygiene conscious, or considered alienating.

This was also a year for true digital revolution, with technology being nearly the sole thread holding the world together. Imagine 2020 twenty years ago, and wonder what would and would not have sustained us. Where I live, we didn't even have that many telephones back then, something like the internet would've been a pipe dream. To think of how much technology has evolved since then and kept us afloat with this year's challenges, says a lot about human progress. Nonetheless, progress was exactly what 2020 stifled.

In a perhaps most well-documented humanity event that this year has been, my takeaways from it aren't necessarily pandemic-related. The world may have shared the same fate, but I think every human life was affected by it differently. Our own individual world might've been a little different from our collective one. So here's seven positive, reinforcing, and no-BS takeaways from the year, ones that come from my own little world, in no particular order:

• Your BIG victories may fulfil you, but it's the little wins in life that fuel you. Things like making a sandwich that turns out to be delicious, or winning a game of badminton against your brother, or receiving an uplifting compliment from someone, or giving your beard a perfect trim, or engaging in a happy conversation with another human being, can mean much more than many bigger achievements in our daily lives. One tiny win like that can easily improve your day and make it more pleasant.

• Goodness is best paid forward. Happiness is best when it's shared. And hope is best when it's consciously cultivated.

• Nothing will ever beat, or be a better gift to anyone than, your sincere presence. Being present for your loved ones, not to the point of being excessively available, but being present while you're with them (physically or digitally), and in spirit, will always be valued. Humans vie for sincere attention and honest engagements, and if you can give that, not only will you receive it as well, you will be a good friend, too.

• At the root of it, most of our relationship problems are just poor communication that has intensified. Even in a friendly context, nothing damages attachments more than poor communication. A timely response signals respect. A call is better than a text. And a conversation is better than a confrontation. Always.

• Animals and birds deserve more love and respect than we tend to give them. The companionship of a dog, even if a stray, can bring such pure joy that few things in life can. The smartness of a bird, even if a crow, can bring such a sense of wonder that few things in life can. Did you know that a crow can ask you for food by constantly and demandingly cawing for it? And then dip that food in water before consuming it? Magnificent birds.

• It's important to pay attention to the media you consume, and especially how much of it. You can spend away all your time scrolling mindlessly on the internet, expend hours on hundreds of 15 second videos, be overloaded by news or information that serves you little, or lose your sense of reality by binge-watching one show after another. These platforms are designed to do that to us. But you have to establish boundaries with them if you want your life to amount to something more than content consumption. Your attention is currency, and the sooner you realise that, the more mindful you'll be of spending it.

• You don't have to be ill to realise your own mortality. You don't have to have lost to be humble. You don't have to be old to be wise. And you don't have to have a partner to feel complete — that is if you're single. Self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-discovery, and self-love are wonderful virtues that can make life more meaningful and magical than the conventional narrative we grow up to accept of it. It's the secret to contentment.

While there's many other lessons that I could've shared, some particularly relevant to the pandemic and the suffering it has caused, these are the ones that I think speak more to our long-term need of reinforcement in life. I have no idea how the next year will turn out, and I don't put much stock in trying to predict it. If nothing else, I do take away the unpredictability of this year with me into the next one.

While many would be glad that this terrible year is finally over, I think nobody can deny that it managed to instil a sense of otherworldly power that humanity had not seen in ages, a supernatural force that put humanity in a place of insignificance, if only temporarily. Generations were affected by this year, and generations will remember it. 2020 was that powerful a year. Terrible, yes, but powerful. And now we know even powerful things must come to an end.

Yugal Sehgal writes about life, mindfulness, and people. He lives in India. Follow him and @drawcuments on Instagram.