How to get more from 2020 without writing it off

The world is losing hope. Without question, 2020 has been intense, extremely difficult and challenging for many people and families.

Even the most positive and optimistic people are being challenged right now. Their sense of confidence, hope, and faith are based on these external conditions. There is no sign that they are going to get any better.

As such, many people are writing 2020 off as a throw-away year. But how do they ensure that 2021 will be any different?

Make your future better

Why not beat the last four months of 2020 with some solid strategies and actions steps?

There is no guarantee that 2021 will be different. Without an effective vaccine that is available to more than 60% of the world population, 2021 is looking like 2020!

Instead, we need to survive and strive by seizing every opportunity and overcome every circumstance to make ourselves better.

Invest in yourself. Change yourself. Grow yourself.

Get ready for the upturn. Today’s challenges will not last forever.

Be masters of our destiny. Create your future.

Proactively create the change and future you want. Don’t let circumstances and challenges dictate and control our actions, moods and behaviours.

When we do not create or control our actions, circumstance and environment, they will create and control us instead.

Focus on what we can control. It is how we respond to situations that matter most.

This is the most amazing time in human history. There are more opportunities now than ever before if you are ready for them.

When you are ready, here are some ways you can make your future better:

Take control and ownership of your perceptions, feelings, vision, identity, and behaviour.
Take greater responsibility for yourself and those you love.
Get your vision clear on your future self. Remember that where there is no vision, the people perish.
Increase faith, hope, optimism and confidence in your future and your future self.
Resolve and commit to making your future better and improving the lives of those you love.
Implement specific strategies and actions to crush the last four months of 2020 (and beyond).
Prepare to get the most out of life!

So, what are you going to do during these last four months that will change the course of your history?

The answer lies largely in your hands.

Faith, confidence and hope

Faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen.

Faith is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.

Therefore, in faith, we can move through the trials of life and overcome challenges with confidence and hope. We can succeed in our present situation optimistically or hopefully.

Cultivate an attitude of always thinking about the good things or outcome in any situation. Don’t beat yourself up for the things that you cannot control.

Choosing joy over happiness in all circumstances

Happiness is completely connected to what is happening to us on the external circumstances of our lives. When our external circumstances seem bad or are down, we feel unhappy.

Alternately, we feel happy when things are going well for us.

Joy is different from happiness. It is unrelated to what is happening to us on the outside.

When joy is tied to our external circumstances, we will be lost. Very few of us will ever experience joy.

Therefore, joy is more about what happens internally within us. It is how we positively respond to our external circumstances and overcome any challenges we may face. Inner joy is about having faith and hope for a positive outcome.

When I have an internal faith and hope that there is loving God who is in control of all the details of my life and that there is the quiet confidence and trust that ultimately everything is going to be alright, I have joy.

(For you, it could be a higher spiritual order or being that you place your faith and hope on.)

Joy has everything to do with what I believe about God. It is the belief that He can do all things inside of me. All I need to do, which I have control over, is to praise Him and give thanks for His grace and mercy over my life.

My joy does not emanate from external temporary situations, the people I interact with, the relationships I have, the circumstances I find myself in, what I own, or what I don’t own.

Joy, for me, has to be found from the inside through a perspective that sees life through God’s eternal lens.

Possessions can be lost, broken or destroyed. Relationships with people can be broken. People can abandon us. All of those things are externals. If that’s where I am putting my focus, then I will have no chance of experiencing joy within me.

I will, therefore, fix my eyes not on what is seen because it is temporary, but on what is unseen, or internal, which is eternal. That’s my secret of joy. It’s choosing the eternal over the temporary in every situation.

Where will you be when 2021 starts?

When the world is crazy right now, you can intentionally create extreme focus and flow.

Block-out the noise and distraction.

It is a good time to zone-in and make extreme progress.

Build faith, hope and optimism in yourself and your current situation. Give hope to others. Bring them along the journey of hope.

Arrive in 2021 as a different, renewed or even transformed person.

Remove all negative hope-destroying media from your life

Avoid all negative media, information and relationships that will destroy your faith, hope and confidence. Consume better but positive information and relationships that will instead increase your faith, hope and confidence.

The less distracted you are, the more confidence and commitment you will build.

When you have faith and hope, you will believe that you can have a better future. You can actively increase your confidence and commitment to control the circumstances and create that better future for yourself.

If you want high performance and better outcomes, you need high-quality inputs and actions. What you put in is what you will get.

Get the results you want by continuously adapting, adjusting and improving yourself. It is not about passively and idly sitting by, waiting and wishing for things to change or come to you.

High-performers inform and develop themselves. They invest themselves in things that they have personal impact and control over.

Clearly define where you want to be by 1 January 2021

Create a vision of where you want to be.

Make positive choices and create a better future that you want. Create pathways, opportunities or strategies to achieve that better future.

Think big. Cultivate a growth mindset.

The more faith, hope, confidence and motivation you have, the more powerful and bold will your vision and actions be.

There are a million different paths to the same destination. Finding the best and shortest path to your destination will require an enormous amount of courage, adapting and learning on your part. However, the choice is yours.

Be resourceful. Make the most out of what is available to you right now. There will be resources, options and potential pathways and opportunities that you are not taking full advantage of. This is because you are either scared, not committed, unwilling to learn, resistant to try or even stuck in your old ways. However, these are mostly in your head.

Fail more, learn faster and adapt your strategy

Learn from your failures. Constantly find better ways to achieve your vision and goals. Unless you try, you will not know your limitations and passion.

There are many choices available to you. Expand your knowledge, relationships, resources, health, and habits to unlock these choices and opportunities.

The more confidence you have, the more you will believe in and trust yourself. There is also a bigger faith and imagination leading toward your better future.

Be willing to try something you have never done before.

Building your confidence right now is so crucial. Without confidence, you will not envision a bigger future. You will not find better pathways, opportunities and strategies to achieve your vision.

The more confident and powerful you become, the better you will be at facing and overcoming challenges. The more you encounter challenges, you will emerge better and more capable.

You will also have more joy over your circumstances.

Intentionally prepare for the next day’s challenges

Before going to bed, pray, meditate or visualise for just a few moments about your vision, strategies and actions. This will direct your subconscious during your sleeping hours.

When you wake up the next day, ruthlessly focus on achieving your daily goals, challenges and opportunities. Avoid distractions.

For me, it is curving my mornings to spend time with my God. To sit in His presences. To strengthen my internal joy.

Master your mornings. Wake up with a purpose. Don’t get lost in the web of modern day distractions.

Maximise your peaks and productivity throughout the day. The better you use your mornings, the better you will use your days. Don’t get lost in your cellphone and computer. It is easy to get sucked in into these time-wasting gadgets. Getting lost in distractions will be your downfall.

Living a purposeful life brings internal joy and external happiness.

Increase your commitment, accountability and results

How committed are you to the changes you are seeking to make and to create a better future?

Tell everyone that you love about what you have committed to — your vision, your better future, your goals. Stop hiding. Be open and transparent. Be accountable to others.

Remove any weaknesses, distractions and addictions that are holding you back. Embrace rejections and failures. Learn from your mistakes and don’t beat yourself up. Find better pathways and opportunities for achieving better results.

Be more agile, flexible and resilient.

Try out new things. Do things differently. Be unconventional.

If you are committed to your success, you will have faith, hope and confidence. Make miracles happen.

Courage increases your commitment. Commitment increases your competence. It forces you to get better. As you get better, you become more confident.

It is now time for you to commit to the transformation you are seeking to achieve for a better future.

What legacy do you want to leave behind?

Your greatest life vision will be the words that have been inscribed on your gravestones. These words will act as a reflection of the life that you have lived as remembered by others around you and the people you have impacted.

Gravestones will contain an accurate overview of how people conduct themselves around other people throughout life — who they were and how they are remembered by those they have left behind.

An obituary is the unabridged version of the impact you have.

Key questions to ask yourself?

What legacy do you want to leave behind?
What type of person do you want to be?
How you do you want people to remember you when you die? (What words are you expecting to be written on your gravestone?)
What type of relationships do you want to create and maintain? Who do you want to positively impact?
How much wealth do you want to hold on to?
What do you want your circumstances and environment to be like?
What is your strategy to achieve your vision?
What are the best and fastest paths to a better future?
What resources and opportunities you need to take advantage of?
What do you need to do to become your future self in the next four months?
What do you need to remove or shake-off from your life over the next four months so that you can develop faith, hope, confidence and excitement towards a better future?
Are you fully committed to your success?

The future is in your hands. You alone are the creator of your destiny and success.

Don’t write-off 2020, yet

Use the remaining time of this year to set yourself up for success. Build a solid foundation for taking off in 2021.

Create a different but successful 2021 by starting now!

Have faith to seize on opportunities that come your way (but the risk is within us!)

View your present situation as opportunities for growth (and position yourself well for the upturn)