253: MIRACLES—What was your word of 2020? What word chose you?

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What's next? This is a question we're all having to ask and answer more frequently. I'm Jenny Blake, your host of the Pivot Podcast and author of Pivot. The only move that matters is your next one.

For show notes from this episode, visit pivotmethod.com podcast if Change is the only constant, then let's get better at it. Here we go.

Hello friends. I am attempting to record another episode live from the park on a rider walk. I did one of these earlier in the year called I Don't know. I'll link to it in the show notes and in that one I shared I don't know what to talk about on this podcast and I would love your input and I put out a listener survey and you've all been so, so generous about filling that out and giving me feedback and helping me understand what you find helpful about Pivot, what you want more of in the future and even shaping my future. Second podcast, Pivot won't go away, but that's your teaser. There's another one coming round the bend, so you can probably hear Ryder running in the background. He just turned one a week ago at the time of this recording and he's both chasing squirrels, hopefully resting near me and corralling his two giant kickballs and a frisbee while getting me filthy. I've had this podcast on my mind for a couple weeks now. I keep waiting till I'll have a good time to record and you know how that goes, especially in 2020. Next week I'll be filming three LinkedIn learning courses so that kind of blocks off calendar all day. I'm excited about them. My the favorite one is called Managing Introverts. That was such a joy to work on because I felt like I was sticking up for all of us who get screen fatigue and digital introverts where too many meetings too much on video just stresses us out. I'm recording one on coaching new managers and another on coaching and onboarding new hires, so I'll share more about those when they go live. The topic of this podcast is what Was your word of the year for 2020 and how has that shaken out?

Did your word feel relevant? Did a new word sort of choose you? Because this has been such a crazy year. The first one, you know, the first global pandemic that we've all experienced and certainly the first one in the last hundred years at this scale.

My word of the year for 2020 that I set way back in January pre pandemic was miracles. I remember feeling kind of tired at the end of 2019. I had been working really hard behind the scenes of my business. I had just relaunched Momo 3.0, my private community for heart based business owners and we made a ton of improvements. Shout out Stephanie Houston, who was just so fun to partner with on that, and Marisol and Brenna. And so turning the corner into 2020, I just felt like I'm asking for a miracle or two or many. And also I want to recognize, see and recognize and appreciate all the small miracles that are present in my life. Breathing every day is a miracle. Being alive every day is a miracle. Having love and affection with Michael and Ryder in our house and having a roof over our heads is a miracle.

You can also see the kind of humor in this haha universe she loves. Good wink pretty much every time. You know, you know, if you're going to choose something like a word of the year, that there's going to be the on the nose aspect and then the ironic aspect. So of course having this be the year of the pandemic and elections and everything, oh my goodness, it's been so challenging. And first, you know, it started strong. I shared a lot of this in episode 245 and then I was like so many of you and so many others. It just gets tiring, as the article goes. And I wish I could remember off the top of my head the researcher's name who introduced the idea of surge capacity. But I think for so many of us at this point, our surge capacity is officially depleted. And as I shared on a momentum Q and A call today, the good thing about that is that we don't have room for too much BS anymore. And it means that all the things that were cluttering up our life and our time and our focus and our energy need to fall away because there just isn't space for things that are mediocre or things that aren't working anymore. You would think that for 2020. So here's my question to you. What was your word? How did that word end up playing out?

In what ways did that Word or theme support you.

And what are the sort of hidden lessons that that word delivered?

If I look back, and here's, here's part, part whatever, I lost track of my count. But when I look back, I also am curious what word chose you this year? So whatever you set your intentions, your theme at the start of the year, and even if you didn't ever lock in on one official word, you know, what was the vibe for you turning the corner into this new decade? I think so many of us were feeling incredibly hopeful and optim and we're going to start this new decade on an amazing foot.

So my question is, at this point in the year, looking back, what do you think the word was that chose you? That kind of imprinted itself and shaped you?

Having written the book Pivot, I think it's quite funny and amazing and incredible to see that for so many people, 2020 was the year of pivoting. And pivot really seems like one of the big words of the year. I've seen it everywhere, in many headlines, so many people talking about it. The whole idea of career pivots are now completely commonplace, which they really weren't when I was working on the book and started writing that. So we just passed the four year anniversary of Pivot and it's amazing to see how so many of those principles apply. For me personally, when I look back on the year, the word that chose me, in addition to miracles and trying to appreciate miracles large and small, is acceptance. I talked a little bit about this in the previous episode on Surrender and Trust and Spiritual Awakening. For me, acceptance was just every time the next thing fell through or the next team transition happened, or who even knows, just one thing after the next, after the next. Even the fireworks every day that were all night. Acceptance, Acceptance. Acceptance. It's like continuing to just accept things that are difficult and unplanned and unpredictable and unwanted. Honestly, we all know if you've studied any of the Buddhist teachers and texts, Byron, Katie, Eckhart, Tolle, whomever that suffering is in resisting, what is that? The path to peace is accepting reality as it is. Because reality is perfect and. And if you accept that in every moment, then it creates less suffering from saying, oh, things shouldn't be this way. And I wish they were different. That's the first point of suffering, is wishing things were other than they are. And yet for how many of us were we wishing for certain different outcomes or different environment around things? I mean, I feel like everything that could have, or so many things that could have gotten shaken up. And there was like a big reckoning this year, personally, professionally, for so many people, for the country, politically. And.

We'Re all being asked to revisit, reimagine, redefine, reset, rest, recharge all those rewords.

If you hear me out of breath, it's because I'm throwing a Frisbee while recording this and Ryder is running around like crazy. But we're doing okay so far. Sometimes I feel it's better to record these and make sure that it gets out than miss a week, because I really do feel committed to getting these out every week. Especially now. Especially now. We are getting through this time and this year together. And I'm really curious, I'm really curious to know what was your word of the year and what word ended up choosing or shaping you? And of course, there's no there there. You know, we're all still being shaped every day. These next few months are going to be just as nutso as the first, the first three quarters of the year. And it's our job to continue practicing these skills of acceptance, surrender, gratitude for what is and what we do have and the small and large miracles of every day.

And patience, even though if your surge capacity is depleted, it's likely that your patience is way more thin now than it might have been at the start of the year. Compassion, kindness.

These things are easy or easier when times are really good and we're happy and we're flowing and we have momentum and everything's amazing. And just as surge capacity can be depleted, sometimes we hit compassion fatigue, which I talked about in a previous episode. I'll link to that in the show. Notes Colleen Pilar on she works with pet industry professionals. Compassion fatigue is real. There's so much that people are grieving this year, whether it's losses of people in their lives or losses of the way life used to be, loss of things that are vitally important. Community, touch, connection.

There's so much that we're all carrying. And, you know, even in New York, there's a lot of advertising around. I forget what it's called. It's not compliance fatigue, but essentially that. And I'm sure you're seeing, we're seeing this nationally, if not even globally, but where people are just having fatigue from following all the rules of social distancing, mask wearing, all those best practices. So we're tired. And if we can give each other that grace, I think that's a first really important step. And then to try to find the light and the lessons. I often feel self conscious when I say that because the Personal Development Police are in my head. Half of them say, yeah, be positive, there's always good things. Keep your vibration high. And then the other half say, that's so Pollyanna. How dare you say find the silver lining. Terrible things are happening so well now you know the Personal Development Police Committee in my head and you can sort this out for yourself. But this is how I'm trying to see it is, of course again episode 245 radical reimagining everything is up for grabs. This was the mantra I adopted in the summer and it still holds true. So now I'm really continuing to try to question every single assumption that I thought I had. And when things happen that are challenging to actually say, okay, well, everything is up for grabs. In a way, of course this is happening right now. Of course another thing isn't going as planned. Why would I expect it to be anything else? And it must mean that this too is up and available for Radical Reimagining.

What has fallen off and I asked this in one of the early pandemic episodes. What are you secretly relieved has dissolved or disappeared this year? What are the different permissions that you've given yourself or that the way that we're working now has given to you that you might not have had the courage to initiate on your own? It could be something as simple as working from home, or not wearing makeup for the ladies, or not having as full of a social calendar.

I can't wait to hear what you think. I would love. If you have any thoughts or follow up questions or comments, please leave me a voice note. Pivotmethod.com ask and if you want to take the listener survey and help shape future episodes of the podcast, you can fill that out@pivotmethod.com survey none of this is mandatory, but it definitely makes my day and I want to create things that are helpful for you and bring joy, peace and calm to your earbuds during such a crazy time and crazy year.

I am wishing you all many miracles forever. But of course, through these next few months I wish you acceptance and little pockets of joy.

From our corner spot on the park, looking at a bright red tree turning fall colors. Signing off for now. Wishing you all a beautiful rest of your day.

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Remember, build first, then your courage will follow. Hasn't it always Sam.