It has taken me some time to properly reflect on 2021. Now that I have, I can confidently say I lived up to the Year of Yes.
When 2020 was ending, I was feeling lost. I had the cliche twenty-something-year-old thoughts of not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, or who I wanted to be. Before entering 2021, I wanted a word to represent my goals for the year. The first word that came to my mind was “Yes”. I wanted to say yes more. I wanted to do more. I wanted to have less fear of saying yes: I had my heart set on pushing my comfort zone beyond my previous limits. The way to do that? Just say yes. So, that’s exactly what I did.
I said yes to some of the most intense, inspiring, exhausting, humbling, creative, fear-ridden circumstances in 2021. Every. Single. Day. Some of which my mind couldn’t even properly comprehend that I was saying yes. But I stuck with it. I became the best version of myself thus far, and to be honest, even in 2022, I keep getting better every day because of it. By pushing myself so far past my limits, my comfort zone began to shift, and I started to fully trust myself and my capabilities to always figure things out. I started shifting my lens to look at fear as excitement. We’re scuba diving with sharks? I am so excited. Living in a foreign country with people I’ve never met? Can’t wait! Did I just said yes to rock climbing a 100ft route overhanging above a river? Me? Oh I’m not scared, I am just SO EXCITED (that one took a bit to shift).
My highest highs and my lowest lows happened in 2021. I never thought it was possible to endure so much emotion in a given year, but I think that’s what made it so beautiful. By accepting every challenge that came my way for 365 days, I see the world in such a different light: Instead of seeing an endless dark and cold tunnel, I see a temporarily dark and cold tunnel with the warmest and brightest sun waiting to shine on me at the end. To come out of 2021 with a clearer sense of who I am and what I can undergo is the coolest and most rewarding feeling that trumps any of those hardships and lows that 2021 brought me.
I encourage you to come up with one word for 2022. Whatever you come up with, stick with it. Challenge it. And by the end of 2022, be proud of it.
PG
Where It Begins 