2020 Prep

And just like that, the year draws to a close. In about thirty days we’ll be ushering in a new decade. When I use to daydream about the year 2020, I imagined I’d be married to my Mr Darcy with at least one child, and I’d be working in a corporate space. I am in no position to be anybody’s wife or mother, and I am not built for a corporate space, so it’s cool. What is actually most concerning to me is how unprepared I am for this next season, as well as how we are almost in the 2020s and they still haven’t invented that universal time control remote Adam Sandler has in the movie Click.

Time truly is the most valuable commodity because it is as final as death. Think of the value of a second to the person who narrowly escapes a car accident or a minute to the person who misses their flight. Time subtly reminds us not to underestimate or misuse it, because once it goes, it leaves.

This month, we will be looking at goal-setting from the perspective of the 5Ps: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. We will be looking at whether motivation is driven by the prospect of a reward for achievement (or punishment for failure), or the prospect of doing better than one’s peers (healthy competition). This will allow us to identify why we tend to struggle with goal-setting; perhaps we don’t follow the S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely) principles as honestly as we believe we do.

I have a feeling that the 2020s are going to be like a fast-paced movie. There will be more information available to us than we know what to do with, and the rapid socio-political, ecological and economic changes will only add to the madness. Unfortunately in this movie, we don’t have a remote that controls time. We must jealously guard every spare second that we have.

By Pink Plume