New Year New Normal
Is it over?
The year that seemed to drag on forever and was gone in a blink of an eye at the same time. 2020. A year that forced humanity to ‘pivot’ and adjust at an unprecedented pace. We went from social creatures who barely considered spittle to knowing about the pros and cons of various PPE options.
As we begin a new year it is customary to reflect on goals and objectives. Even if you are not the type of person to set a New Year's Resolution, you can’t avoid the discussion.
But how can we set goals going into 2021 while the uncertainty of 2020 is still thick in the air?
As we turn our attention from our holiday break and begin to focus again on our mission to eradicate childhood sexual abuse, here at Priority Kids a million different goals could be considered.
More Training
More Social Media Posts
Less Social Media Posts
More Speaking Engagements
Better Blog Content
More Parternships
Less Time on Computer
The list of potential goals we could set for ourselves is never ending. But as we all know, sticking to resolutions is difficult. If we weren’t doing it a week before Dec. 31st, we probably won’t be doing it a week after Jan. 1st.
That’s not to say we won’t be moving toward our goals. Our focus is to train adults to protect children from sexual abuse. No matter what unexpected social and global circumstances might occur in 2021, children will continue to need us to protect them. Our 'to do' list isn't really a New Year's Resolution.
We are staying committed to our vision of a world where children can enjoy a childhood with their sexual boundaries intact.
Ours is a ‘long game’ vision and requires a daily resolution more than an annual hope for something better.
But We Want to Make Resolution Too
There is something fun and hopeful about making a resolution. So we want to jump on that bandwagon.
We resolve to do everything we can to avoid seeing things to ‘Back to Normal’ in 2021.
One of the messages that we have heard over the past few months, especially with the beginning of vaccination programs, is the idea that we can look forward to things going ‘back to normal’.
Many of us who are striving for social change are quick to point out that ‘back to normal’ is not a very creative or inspired aspiration.
Back to normal includes poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, gender inequality, and racism.
Back to normal includes child sexual abuse
These social challenges have a significant impact in our lives, in our communities and affect how we experience the world we live in. And they are all intertwined and interconnected with what we think of as ‘normal’.
If 2021 does bring back some of the freedoms and opportunities that were lost in 2020, let’s not look backwards and strive to recreate an unjust world.
Instead, let’s embrace every opportunity to change systems and processes. Those of us who strive for change know how difficult it is to affect change in a complex system, and if there is a golden lining on the year of 2020, it is that people are ready to ‘pivot’. Let’s use each pivot to experiment with different ways of being and doing.
Uncertainty and change has become a part of our daily lives because of the pandemic. And of course that becomes exhausting and people naturally yearn for a break from rethinking their day, their week, their year and their futures every time a new restriction is put in place or lifted.
I suspect that when people say they want things to go ‘back to normal’, what they mean is that they want some certainty in their lives.
People utilize ‘auto pilot’ an awful lot in a day. Morning routines. Driving to work. Getting kids dressed. Many of the things we used to do in a day could be achieved with very little active thinking. Very little CRITICAL THINKING. I think of this ‘auto pilot’ state of functioning as being somewhat mentally relaxed. Even if you think of these routines as being full of chaos (young kids, anyone?), the components of the tasks were still familiar.
I think of the difference between making pasta and tomato sauce for supper, which requires very little thinking energy compare with making a multi-step meal that I have never made before which requires me to read and follow instructions.
The pandemic made it impossible for us to operate on autopilot and forced us to engage in critical thinking a lot. Like making a complicated new meal every day. And as I write this, I wonder if some of the challenges we saw in 2020 might have been a result of us all being a little rusty and inexperienced in the field of critical thinking? If we were a little out of shape in the critical thinking department in 2020, that is understandable.
And if we are yearning for the opportunity to re-engage with a more relaxed auto-pilot state, that is understandable too.
But, please, let’s not make the mistake of striving for things to go ‘back to normal’.
Priority Kids is one year old this month. Our work has been in the community for a decade, but in 2020 we ‘pivoted’ (even before the pandemic) to a business model that will allow us to have a greater impact in the community. More adults trained, more kids protected.
This means that our systems are new. Our processes are being tweaked. We too are striving to create some routines that will save us thinking energy… working on auto-pilot some of the time does have appeal.
But we are not looking backwards to our past for a model to follow. We are looking forward to test out and discover what a new normal can be.
A new normal where children are nurtured and protected from sexual abuse. All the time. Everywhere they go. A new normal that includes benefits we haven’t even imagined yet.
We wish you all the best success with your resolutions and goals for the year. And we hope that we do not see a return to normal in 2021.
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Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868
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