Be Present: Be Grateful

Until recently, I never thought of gratitude as a practice, or something I did every day. I never did morning pages, intention setting, and reflection. All of those things have started flowing out of me as of July of this year.

This year, 2020, was meant to be “our year” at my company. I had my sights set on some very big goals, personally and professionally. If you asked me in March how we might get there, I would have told you, we’re already on our way there and nothing will stop us. Then things changed overnight and the world and reality that I lived in, seemed like a distant far far-off, normal place. The new reality was unusual, scary, turbulent, and unforgiving.

The beauty of life is that every day is a new day. An opportunity to start fresh, and wash away what you might have been dealing with yesterday. Every day, if you’re lucky enough to wake up, you have a choice and you decide how you want to show up. You can choose to be angry. You can choose to be happy. At certain times I can say it’s not easy to choose “not to be sad”, especially if you’re dealing with grief. But my point is, if you’re here now, reading this, you have a fresh day and can come with a fresh perspective.

Here’s my fresh perspective:

2020 was not the year I had planned in my head that it would be. While I was initially shocked about it and initially depressed about it, it’s taken a lot of emotional labor and work, but I’ve reframed my outlook. 2020 has been a year that I’ve needed. It forced me to slow down. It forced me to stay home. It forced me to be present in my life, with my son, with my family, with my friends, with my team. It forced me to be a mother. It forced me to co-parent. It forced me to ask more questions and listen with intention. It was not the year I had planned in my head. In my head, I was going to be on a plane every month, all over the place building a business, closing new clients, and meeting old clients for breakfast, lunches, or dinners.

I can’t help but think 2020 is the year I’ve needed for the last 10 years. It’s the shift and reset I’ve been longing for. There is a lot of pain and devastation happening and I do not discount that. But there are still so many beautiful people in the world. There are still so many things that bring me joy and none of them are “things”, all of them are “experiences”.

I am grateful for:

• Being at home with Baxter after being on the road for the last 6 years and missing most of the every day, special moments with him.
• Finding handwritten notes from my Gram that allows me to hear her voice in my head while I read them to myself.
• A team that stuck together through some turbulent months and hardly enough work to keep us all around, but somehow we managed to make it happened.
• A husband that took a creative’s workshop that allowed him to progress on some projects that had been stalled for years.
• Two parents that are healthy and two in-laws that are healthy.
• A sister who has accomplished more goals in 2020 than in her entire life.
• Discovering altMBA and Akimbo workshops, which has brought so many wonderful people into my world.
• Best friends that make me laugh until I cry and even when we tell the same jokes over and over, they’re still as funny as the first time.
• The safe arrival of my friend Emma Isaacs 6th baby at her home earlier this year.
• Jake and Claire’s safe arrival of little Minnie.
• A life and business coach that has helped me re-connect with myself, showing me that it’s OK to cry when you feel feelings, and in vulnerability there is strength.
• My Chief Core group.
• All of the women I’ve met and connected with from Chief and Shatter.
• My colleagues at some of my favorite clients who make work fun and laugh at my jokes.

As this year winds down, and I’m tempted to say “2021 is going to be my year”, I don’t think I will say that. I am living in the present, so now is my time, this year is my year, next year will also be my year, and that’s my new perspective.

Wishing you and yours a restful day today. May you find gratitude in your life today and always.

XX,

Dom