Seven Things: January 2021
The shift into a New Year brought up a ton of mixed emotions for me. It brought relief that 2020 was over, but a knowing that the challenges, pain, and heartbreak were far from finished. It brought hope for the possibility of a new administration and fear for what might possibly happen in advance of January 20th. It brought energy as I thought about what I might be able to do in the coming year, and it brought an immense amount of exhaustion, still lingering from the year before.
Now, as we near the end of this first month of 2021, I am feeling hopeful. To be sure, I have moments where I am fully of energy and moments where I am simply exhausted. I have days where I see what might be, and moments where I see how far we still have to go. All I can do moving forward is try to seek balance. Some days, all I can do is Inhale and Exhale. As Amanda Gorman said so beautifully: “That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried.” That was my call to action for 2021.
With that, I am excited for the first round of Seven Things in 2021: things I’m learning, loving, watching, thinking about, and experiencing.
I must again start with Amanda Gorman, because she is incredible. What I am most excited about is her children’s book, Change Sings, that will be released in September 2021. This book will become part of a growing collection of books that I hope will allow my daughter to become a human that is loving, kind, anti-racist, inclusive, generous, and so many other things. Other books that I have loved for her recently are Antiracist Baby, the ABC’s of Kindness, and Giraffes Can’t Dance.
On to the books I have been reading (though I do read a lot of baby/toddler books). The two I have finished so far this year (and have definitely liked) are Group and The Black Friend. I have a lot of books on my nightstand in in my Libby App, so I’m hoping to pick up the pace next month and have more to report back on.
While my reading has been a bit slow this month, I have been watching a lot of shows. It’s something about the long month of January that makes me want to binge. I watched Bridgerton (I was told that if you don’t enjoy romance as a genre, don’t critique it - so I simply enjoyed it), The Queen’s Gambit (as amazing as I had heard it was), Night Stalker (I had known quite a bit about this case, but learned a lot of new things), and The Flight Attendant (I both loved it and really didn’t like it at times…though honestly I would watch Season 2, because I am invested). I am currently watching Your Honor, The Vow (I am so fascinated by cults, so glad to finally see this), and finally starting to catch up on The Crown + Ozark.
Wellbeing is always important to me, and in the winter more than ever. I have been thoroughly enjoying the Yoga With Adriene 30 Day Challenge and plan to do another in February. I have been absolutely loving my Acupressure Mat. I use it every single day and it has helped me sleep better, reduce stress, and just generally chill out. I can’t recommend it enough, though you do have to be comfortable with a bit of discomfort at first.
At Echoing Green, we have almost 900 incredible social entrepreneurs that we work to support - and they are all seriously incredible. This month, I have to highlight Creative Reaction Lab, and encourage you to look at (and sign up for!) their workshops, especially if you do anything related to design or program/product development. I’ll be joining “How Traditional Design Thinking Protects White Supremacy” in February.
As a manager and leader, I always try to balance being both an effective, results-oriented manager and an empathetic human that cares deeply about her team members. For me, I approach my work as a human first - and that means fully knowing that people can’t always be operating at 100%. I really appreciated this article that came out this month, which acknowledges how we are so conditioned to expect productivity all day, every day - and it is so far from reasonable or fair, especially given the volume of traumatic events we have been facing in recent years.
Finally, a coaching question for you to consider this month: What is one thing that you can do, that will have a positive impact on your life, right now? I love this question because it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the things we feel we need - or want - to do, as we seek to improve, develop, and sustain our own leadership. But what is the one thing - something you can do today, or this week, that would make your life just a little bit better. For me, it’s committing to another 30 days of yoga/pilates. Whether it’s 5 minutes or 60, committing to this will absolutely have a positive impact on my life in the coming weeks.
