10 Things I learned from 2020
I know, I know — what a lovely click bate title. I’m not writing this for you, I’m writing it for me. I can’t let this pandemic season/year go by without learning a few good lessons. One day if something like this happens again (God forbid, I hope it doesn’t) I can give advice and help someone through such a unique and difficult season. So here is my 10 cents. Full disclaimer these are not entirely all my thoughts. Many of the themes come from sermons and readings during 2020. Call it borrowed wisdom. So here we go:
1
The fear of losing it all. For the first time in my 36 years of existence, the fear of losing it all came over me in waves. It was an emotional see-saw. What if I don’t reach my dreams and goals. Why are they so important anyway?
The thing about fear is it always attracts the information needed to legitimize its existence (Bill Johnson).
Things that have been pretty much rock solid all through my life (country, social structure, business, and wealth) felt threatened. It was an awful feeling and I had good days and not so good days (This was during the 5 week lockdown period in SA)
Some days the whole thing felt like a joke, but other days I found myself in deep darkness. It revealed to me that maybe my faith and trust is not 100% in God. We so easily forget that this world is only temporary. Remember He never changed — He is still the same God (a good God, in a good mood). I think the thing that really upset my stomach was all the uncertainty. We are not used to uncertainty. I needed to learn to embrace this new uncertainty in the world. The most important lesson though is — “Focus on the promises of God — they are still true and relevant (and hasn’t changed)”.
2
Consumption. Remember the fable about the frog in the pot of cold water that doesn’t notice the water slowly getting warmer (as the fire is burning), until it's too late and it becomes soup la frog? That is the same with social media.
Every person and idiot on Twitter and Facebook had an opinion, conspiracy theory, and new rumor to spread. Don’t get me started on fake news and politics. When you read of all the doom and gloom it fills your subconscious slowly and soon you feel very depressed and hopeless. All the content steals your hope until you feel there is nothing left. The days where I don’t read the news are 300% better than any other day. I wish I took more social media fasts this year.
Bill Johnson says it perfectly — “If you have more input from the mainstream media than from the Word of God in this season, your discouragement is self-inflicted”.
3
I have never been so enthralled in politics. Never had an interest. I didn’t even know about the left and right before this year.
For the first time in my life, I experienced what it feels like if a political party governing your country started to act like authoritarians and crazy socialists. I was never into the whole left and right political stances, but now I’m very informed and aware of these views/powers.
In a blink of an eye, 50 years of family business could be lost, because of agendas, politics, and culture. That was scary. An important lesson here is, always have 6 months of cash flow available for the rainy days and keep on diversifying. Lesson — “Wealth provides options!”
4
Staying at home definitely does not mean you suddenly have time to do all those projects you wanted to do. In fact, it almost felt like we had less time?! Even when staying at home one still needs lots of structure and work to get through the day (especially if you have three little kids). Lesson — “Time is still a choice”.
5
Truth. For every scientist who says the whole rona thing is just another flu, slightly deadlier than normal, there’s a scientist who says it’s 10X deadlier than normal flu. For every stat showing exponential growth, there is another stat giving another perspective. Fake news everywhere with fake photos and fake statements. It goes on and on, never-ending. Some Christians say it is the end of the world and others are prophesying a massive revival (I’m in that camp). What is the truth these days? Lesson — “The Word is still the truth. The rest. Opinion.”
6
We are better than we thought we were at this. Staying at home with the kids one would think it would be chaos. Instead, it was the most peaceful time for us.
We drank tee every day at 09:00 and 16:00 sharp, in our garden. The day had some basic structures like homework, outside play, TV time, and nap times. We taught the kids to clean their own rooms and bathrooms. We managed to keep the house clean with not more than an hour of work a day (Anna the Roomba Robot also helped. So much. I seriously need to buy more of them).
It was such a special time for us. The peace of managing days on your own terms has been a lifelong dream for us. We finally could experience it. We learned that even while living in a smallish town, in our normal life we are running too fast. Life is crazy enough if you imagine kids have to be at school before 07:00 in the morning. Then it’s off to work till almost 18:00 again. That is nuts. Homeschooling is not that bad after all. In the end, we realized what we already knew — “Simpler is just so much better. Less is really more.”
7
The world system balance is so sensitive. If an invisible flu virus can almost bring down the world, destroy industries, and bankrupt companies in a matter of months then it is a miracle that things stay the same for decades. It was also interesting to see many industries BOOM after the lockdowns. In many ways, it was almost like an accelerant for ending things and beginning new things. I started a new company, my wife declared in 2021 she is closing her Montessori School, we moved to a new church and many things happened in our personal lives.
It was really an epic year for us in terms of change. Stories of people moving on with their lives who were stuck for many years became so common every time someone told me they were moving, changing jobs or churches, I just nodded and said “2020”. In the rest of the world, this is also prevalent. Lesson: “Sometimes we need a world pandemic to move on with our lives (or if we are stuck — to kick us in the shin).
8
This too shall pass. And it did. Fear was prevalent this year — so much fear. Yet now I look back and feel like pfffff, should have bought more Bitcoins. In the USA and SA, the share exchanges are fully restored or even on all-time highs. There are IPO’s left right and center. Our business had an amazing second term in 2020. It seems that every 10 years a massive global or Black Swan event hits the world. It always recovers though to a certain extent (and pretty quickly) to reach new all-time highs. Lesson: “Buy more Bitcoin or Ethereum” or “when everybody panic sells, BUY!” and “In 10 years when another Black Swan event occurs. I will be ready!”.
9
So many sheep. Sheep everywhere. No this is not the farm. I was actually shocked to see and experience how absolutely uninformed, by far the majority of people are. I’m not talking about people who didn’t finish high school. I’m talking about intelligent human beings that have University degrees that fall for scams, fake news, and false information. It really feels like most people are just SHEEP and can’t think for themselves. I'm even more determined to teach my kids to ask questions, be curious, and think for themselves. Lesson: “Be informed, check the facts, and check the sources. Then make a decision to share on social media”.
10
For number 10 I thought why not give the reader a chance to share some lessons from 2020. What was your biggest learning this year? Leave it in the comments below, please. Lesson — “If you want to go fast go alone, If you want to go far go together”
