As we are close to saying farewell to 2022, there is undoubtedly a lot to reminisce about. Whether this has been a year of unexpected challenges or you’re ready for a clean slate in 2023, take a moment to reflect and reimagine the goals regardless of where you are geographically and what role you play!
When we look back, we cannot forget the havoc wreaked on our lives and our plans in the past. Although the global pandemic has come much on a controlled level, it is still lingering with its different variants.
Before the pandemic, no one could have foreseen the physical, emotional, and economic toll that this terrible virus unleashed upon the world!
The sharp pick-up in inflation has added a new element of uncertainty. Early in 2022, inflation surged in the US and some European economies, triggering an almost synchronised tightening of monetary policies in most countries in the world.
This was aggravated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine towards the end of February, which sent energy, food, and fertiliser prices soaring and spawned widespread supply disruptions. Ukraine, inflation, economic uncertainty, climate change, and the persistent threat posed by Covid and its offshoots will dominate 2023 along with, if the past is anything to go by, one or two new problems that we can currently hardly imagine.
While these are all universal problems that affect all the people on the earth, optimism is what leads us to life!
With over eight billion people on the planet earth, the months, weeks, and days that we all have are exactly the same but the experience each one of us has is entirely different.
For millions, it may have been an exciting or fantastic year while for millions of others it might have been a bizarre year. Some of us may have become more confident as the days passed, but many of us have not due to various challenges with varied velocities.
Yes, it's important to look back into the past year to see what went right, celebrate that, and bring it into the next year in a better way for a better life. Reminiscing 2022 also means analysing what went wrong, re-work on that and try and redefine, rectify those mistakes in a way that we can craft and shape a better 2023.
Nobody else is responsible for what we do in our life. The future to come is ours, what is about to come from today on is ours and we are the architect of our lives, our success, our happiness, our relationships, or our career. At the same time, we cannot satisfy all nor can we be in the good books of all.
For me, the year has taught me my own strengths and my self-proclaimed corner which proved my presence to be much beyond what I thought. I was full of anxiety when I retired from my job last July. Of course, retiring from work is a major life change that can bring stress as well as benefits!
“The more resilient you are, the better you’re able to cope with challenges like retirement”, I have learned. As we grow older, life can seem to change at an ever-quickening rate. Kids leave home, you lose friends and loved ones, physical and health challenges mount, and retirement looms. It’s normal to respond to these changes with an array of mixed, often conflicting emotions.
This year thus made me realise that my battles are my own and I may trust all or feel to be trusted but it is not always true. I learned and trained myself with a combination of tears and laughter coming together!
So without malice to anyone, I wish all the very best to all of you for the New Year 2023, and may all your dreams come true with new blessings and sparkles of happiness. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023 in advance!
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