How many expletives can you conjure up to describe 2020? Most of you have a bucket load to portray your experiences, emotions and expectations. If you are reading this magazine article, congratulate yourself for surviving despite the setbacks, the losses, the hurt, the fear and outright frustration. It is, nonetheless, possible that this coming year will simply be more of the same, and that’s ok. Why?

There are 3 key elements that you already have in your back pocket to help you. I’m going to save the best one for last. Let’s count them down.

The first, is the element of resilience. Even if you lost much and have your back against the wall, you learned and you grew. The growing pains were potentially unbearable. Nelson Mandela once said, “We either win, or we learn.” You discovered so much about yourself through introspection and having more time than usual to look in the mirror. You discovered plenty about other people: ouch in some cases. Resilience is a muscle that needs a workout, nurturing and training. The more aware we become of our resilience, the easier we adapt, the stronger we become, leaving us armed and equipped to battle any forces: internal and external. Your resilience will help you overcome almost everything, and that is reason to be optimistic regardless of what 2021 brings. You’ve got this.

Coming in at number two is creativity. I don’t mean the kind that leads to delivering a work of art. I mean the kind that enables us to adapt, envision something different and new: the kind that provides us with answers and solutions. The superpower of creativity is within you, waiting for you to access and leverage it. You may have already noticed that you became a little more creative during 2020. The beautiful byproduct of creativity is expression. Expression releases frustration and pain, allowing us to heal and refuel. Let 2021 be the year where you come out of your shell, own your story, own who you are and have the courage to share it with the world. The world is waiting to see the real you and this year is your moment to launch that person. I find that exciting (and scary as hell). The reward will by far outweigh the fear.

Last and definitely not least, the element of hope. How powerful is hope? You have no idea. It’s the game-changer. In 1784, Benjamin Franklin said, “Hope is an essential constituent of human life.”
This is what really blew my mind about the power of hope.

A regrettably sad, if not gruesome experiment was conducted in 1950 by Curt Richter, a biologist, psycho-biologist and geneticist. He took twelve domesticated rats and placed them in a jar filled with water. They swam for a couple of minutes before sinking to the bottom as he watched them drown and die. He did the same experiment with more aggressive wild rats, expecting them to last longer. They too drowned and died within minutes. This is where the horrible experiment revealed something remarkable. This time, when the domesticated rats sank to the bottom, he picked them out for a few minutes. When he placed them back into the water, they did something amazing. They kept swimming for hours. Why?

The first scenario was one of hopelessness: no point in fighting, knowing the inevitable outcome is death. Once hopelessness was removed from the equation, everything changed. The gloves came on and time and despair were drowned by optimism and reason to live, reason to be.

Let resilience, creativity and hope be your reason to keep swimming in 2021 and beyond.

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of CHOICES Magazine