Yet another Deep December. I didn’t even need to think of a catchy alliteration. Just had I had done a Deep December last year, so will I this year. End of the year seasons had always been for reflection and rest for me. Typically I would be in Bali on a personal retreat for one month. But with the COVID-induced travel ban, figuring out an equivalent in Singapore will be challenging.

Nonetheless, a few things I want to introspect on this month, as my goals:

COVID experience and parenthood

COVID and parenthood were the two major life changes this year. Either one would have been life-altering enough, and yet both came at the same time. To say that I’m still reeling from having to adapt to both is an understatement. By lumping parenthood with COVID, I’m not saying that parenthood had been a negative. In fact, I would say there’s been a net positive on both ends. But it had been hard getting here. Very hard. So a recap of 2020 wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t dig deeper into these twin sentinels.

Projects stock-take

Oddly enough, despite the challenges of COVID, 2020 had been an epic year for projects. In fact, it’s precisely because of COVID that this many opportunities for projects came about. Unmet needs on the ground were everywhere, and it was not difficult to find something that I liked to work on, and to spin up a quick MVP. And with my musing about starting a social impact patronage, all the more important to think through my deeper why, before committing to it.

Past aspirations come and gone

I remembered making lots of moonshot goals at the start of 2019, after an awesome and optimistic 2018. In fact, I was supposed to (try to) hit $1mil annual revenue by the end of Dec 2020! But COVID bitchslapped that aspiration to the moon and beyond. That goal now feels like a distant memory. Should I try again? Or reframe? Does it make sense after all that I learned from the pandemic about how little I need? 

2021

Mostly importantly, setting the tone for the next year. If I were to accept this new normal as the way forward, how would I change the way I lived and worked? What unique opportunities can I leverage on that the pandemic had shown us? What can I release from this year and embrace for next?

Onward, Deep December. My last monthly goal here on 200wad.