2020 Vision: How Will You Move Forward In The Year Of The Pandemic?
How to Find Personal Truth and Meaning Amidst the Chaos & Move Forward with Clarity & Direction
BY SHANA LYNN YAO
“We’re here to put a dent on the Universe. Otherwise why are we here?”
You are going to die.
But wait - that’s actually GOOD news. Remembering we are going to die someday is one of the best ways to free our minds of things that aren’t important.
Even Steve Jobs said he did it daily. Perhaps that was one of his secrets for unleashing his genius. And perhaps it could be a path to unleashing yours too.
BUT FIRST, THE BAD NEWS
The bad news though is, if you’re like many, you just spent an entire year of your only life, watching the news, scrolling through photos of people you don’t even know, on social media platforms that were designed to rob you of your limited conscious attention, and you might have even spent time worrying about a disease you have 99.999% of surviving if you get it, and waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
If that sounds familiar, it’s ok. You’ve got company - lots of it. And while that may sound cold hearted, somebody had to rip the bandaid off so you could step back from the constant, streaming noises outside of you, to take a minute to find your own clarity.
At this point, you may choose to stop reading, as this does not fit your paradigm, Which is awesome. This truth is not for everyone.
But if you want to read on, even if it is to see another point of view, that’s awesome. Because anything that sheds light on your own vision for your life, is another step to finding your own freedom in your mind.
And the GOOD NEWS is, you can change directions starting RIGHT NOW.
FROM CHAOS TO CLARITY
2020 was the year that our normal routines were replaced by uncertainty, and fear. Suddenly we didn’t know how to operate.
Why is that?
Because when did we become so entitled that we expected life to always just be like the day before?
It’s not entitlement necessarily, it’s the way our society has trained us to be. Back in the caveman days, we were hunters and gatherers, setting forth each day on an adventure to find our next meal, set up camp, and live off the land.
Enter modern society, the industrial age, and a world that trained us to do repetitive, production work. We were taught value our intellectual brains rather than our innate skills such as perception, reason, will, imagination and intuition.
The truth is, we have forgotten our own humanity. The modern world, now filled with technology and over abundance, has trained a society of people so lazy, we think that talking into a device to turn on and off a light, is normal.
I’m not saying technology is bad. I’m merely pointing out why we may feel chaos in “uncertain times” and look to the government, and news?!? for clarity. The truth is we NEVER know what is going to happen next. We have just been trained to EXPECT that life IS a certain way.
Until it is not.
So then a pandemic hits, and we were forced into lockdown mode. We didn’t have anyplace to go to distract ourselves, didn’t have anything we could do, and our autopilot was put on hold.
We were forced to DO NOTHING.
Yikes.
Or actually, what a relief!
How often have you wondered how great it would be to HAVE MORE TIME? And so there we were. We were forced to adapt, to slow down, we could have chosen to be present - or to numb ourselves with other distractions like the news, social media, and current events.
No one would have chosen this path - it was a blessing with an ugly disguise.
But YES Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus. And whether he is dressed as the sweater wearing, deceitful Bill Gates, or an obese man in a petroleum-based, microplastic red suit, something and a select few made our wishes (or nightmares) come true.
So here we are. How will we use this time we have been given? Will we use it wisely? Will we go back to the stuck old ways of doing things? What have we learned? What will we do differently? Will we decide enough is enough and set forth on a new, clear path? Will we evolve into the blessed people we were meant to be and help save this beautiful planet we call home? Will we finally seek out our own truth and meaning to give purpose to this one, precious life?
THIS IS YOUR WAKEUP CALL
Life. It’s beautiful as they say. And as I said in the beginning, you are going to die. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for 50 years. But someday, this beautiful life is going to end.
This year, God, the Universe, whatever you believe in from above, has given us the greatest gift we could ever imagine.
The gift of DISRUPTION.
And now it is our JOB, if you choose it to be, to find out WHY YOU ARE HERE.
You are here for a very important reason. I don’t know what it is, and you may not know either. But out of 7.5 billion people in the world, only one of them is you. A lone sperm and egg met, and had a baby, and now you exist.
And don’t worry, you don’t have to be Mother Theresa, Steve Jobs, or change the world with your life. But with every choice you make, in every moment, with every conscious decision you make, you are creating your life.
And that, at the end of it, will be your life purpose.
CHOOSE YOUR LIFE, OR WASTE IT
Life purpose.
It sounds daunting and huge. But in my view, it’s really what your life has led you to do RIGHT NOW. You may have a job you love, or one you hate. You may be a mother or father, an entrepreneur - whatever you are and however you define yourself, life purpose is the CONSCIOUS choice you make for your life in that moment.
You may spend your life pursuing your life purpose, and that is AMAZING! The goal of our lives is not to finally “get there”. There is no finish line. If you wake up everyday happy, loving what you do and who you are, I would define that as “life working for you.”
It’s a choice - and one you can and should make daily. Some days you may find clarity. And some days - hell, some years - you may be stuck, suffering from a health condition, or confused. And that is ok too.
CLARITY COMES FROM ENGAGEMENT
So what next? It’s time to use this gift of disruption of life as you knew it, and DECIDE what you want your life to be about, FOR NOW.
What has been “that thing” eating away at you nightly? What do you often think about but then talk yourself out of?
Finding clarity is first a choice, and then an action. And luckily, with the right steps, you just might find that by this time next year, one step closer to finding your personal truth, and the true magic of life, that it is working for you.
Shana Yao is a Conscious Brand Strategist and Founder of Total Genius, where she helps creative entrepreneurs and brands clarify their vision and transform it into an actionable and inspired brand strategy that produces results. Using her 30 years of experience directing the marketing for multimillion dollar retail and shopping center locations, including the famed Rodeo Drive, and working with entrepreneurs and purposeful brands, Shana’s mission is to help business owners cut through the confusion of business and build their personal and professional success from the inside out. Shana is a dog mom and dog advocate, the winner of the International Shopping Center (ICSC) MAXI Award for Innovative Marketing Programs and was voted Volunteer of the Year for spcaLA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles). She loves meeting new people, so reach out @total_genius and www.holisticgenius.co.
