2020 may have been a difficult year for some of us to attain our year-end goals. With unexpected lockdowns and having to socially distance ourselves from each other, some of us may have been feeling bogged down, unmotivated, and lonely. How many of us can say that we achieved everything we set out to achieve at the beginning of this year? If you did, give yourself a huge pat on the back and crack open a bottle of champagne! If you didn’t—that’s OK. I find that when you surround yourself with inspiring, strong, successful people, you unconsciously channel their positive energy and end up setting yourself up for success too. So if you couldn’t do everything to your heart’s content this year, remember there’s always next year!
So how can you stay motivated in an Age of Covid? At the beginning of each year, I create something called a mood board, which is inspired by one of my favourite YouTubers, Amber Scholl. And on this mood board, I usually add a collage of images that reflect the goals that I set for myself. Some of these goals for 2020 were:
Get my M1
Learn electric guitar
Study more French and Mandarin
Start my own business
Teach at the U of A
Publish, publish, publish
Lose weight, be fit (I swear this one has been on my mood board for the past four years now...)
Because I am super goal-oriented, I thought it would be impossible for me to attain everything that I aspired to do this year after Covid hit. Surprisingly, with the exception of obtaining my M1 and other things such as travelling for conferences, I was able to check off the majority of the things on my board and/or get the ball rolling for others. If anything, because I teach, research and work from home, I made, for example, my goal to publish articles into a reality, but man-oh-man, I think I may have been over-ambitious. One thing I learned this year that I haven’t been able to do yet is to know when to take a break. Every day of the calendar does not need to fill with a compact schedule. As a Sherlockian, I aspire to keep myself busy like Sherlock Holmes because an idle brain is the devil’s workshop (he might say), but at the same time, remember to not spread myself too thin—this will be a 2021 goal.
One of the biggest highlights of this year came from my teaching experience. I taught three courses at the University of Alberta and two courses for a business I co-founded with my childhood friend, Japanese for Nikkei Inc. At a time when it seems like we’re living in a post-apocalyptic zombie film, connecting with my students online was probably a saving grace. Moreover, being able to do what I love was such a rewarding experience.
From these things, new doors opened and I was invited to deliver a guest talk and workshop for my home department, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, for both their “Creative Pedagogies Series” and “MLCS Workshop Remote Language Instruction.” Enlarge the PPT to view!
I was also featured on Episode 4 of the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s Teaching Remotely Series, talking about teaching languages and literature remotely and using Instagram as a community building and assessment tool. (Listen to it below, or click HERE). In other words, it’s important to keep a positive attitude and an open mind in a world that is currently topsy turvy. You never know when new doors will open so be on game everyday. If you found that doors were closing right and left, know that news ones will open. Stay strong!
Although not everything went exactly as planned this year, and although I should have channelled my inner Holmes more to get even more things done, it was a productive year and I learned the importance of work-life balance, well theoretically.
Who knows what 2021 will bring, but I wish everyone good health and success in ways that are meaningful to you!