2021 was a roller coaster ride for us as a collective. We witnessed our world trying to overcome the biggest pandemic in over a century but it kept on growing and growing. We also saw many of our industries get stress tested throughout the year, and some of them are beginning to give in, such as our food, automobile, and chips supply chains.
Nonetheless, we also experienced a great year in terms of achievements, including the first ever civilian space launch in human history, combating food insecurity, A new HIV vaccine has shown a 97% response rate in Phase I trials, and many more huge feats.
On a personal level, 2021 was a year of tremendous growth and introspection. I dove deep into what makes me tick, who I am, and who I want to become. Needless to say, I lived in a privileged position to go into this journey, and consider myself extremely grateful and lucky to do so as many of us are living through very difficult times.
I wanted to take a moment and share with you my biggest lessons from the past year. I hope to expand on these principles as the new year goes on and share a deeper insight into why were these lessons crucial for me and will continue to do so in the future.
We are living in a world that is constantly being bombarded with negativity, and I believe our society is not as grim as we are painting it. But, if we continue to give fuel to the stories that paint humanity as selfish, shallow, and evil, this will indeed become true, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Let us remember that the stories we read on the news, social media, and the ones we listen on the radio and watch on TV have the single purpose of making profit. The only way of achieving this is by publishing click-bait articles and appealing to our amygdala — the part of our brain that is responsible for our emotions and fight or flight response.
This means that almost 99.9 percent of all stories are never told. Only .1 Percent of stories manage to be on top of our news feed because they capture an emotional-inducing narrative for us to read.
When we do read these small yet loud stories, the picture we have about reality configures itself to accommodate a world filled with negativity, thus leading our own actions be driven by these faulty perspectives. Therefore, our world does indeed become a world filled with anxiety and fearfulness — not because it is true, but because we made it so thinking it was true.
I hope this article does the exact opposite.
I wish it invites you to understand that the fate of our world does lie within our own hands. It does lie in the way we walk ourselves through our waking experience; it gets created by every single interaction we have with the world, our surroundings, and most importantly, those who surround us.
By applying positive principles to our daily lives, we paint the canvas of the world with powerful colors. We begin to act in the way we want our society to act. If we wish to become a society that triumphs through love, we must embrace the immense responsibility we have in making it happen.
As mentioned previously, the world we see is the world we wish to see, not the world as it really is. So, if we apply the same logic as mentioned earlier in terms of self-fulfilling prophecies to this thought process, then we can see the better angels of our nature and, eventually, those will be the only ones that truly exist within our society.
I went on a huge tangent there but here are the biggest principles I learned on 2021 and hope to apply in a much consistent fashion in the new year — and beyond.
Any form of kindness, even the smallest one, will create a better reality for all;
Embrace yourself, love yourself, and in turn you will love others;
Spread joy — it is one of the most scarce assets in the world, let’s make it a massive one;
Compliment others and thank them;
Learn to reflect more, and see yourself as for who you truly are;
Embrace failure — but learn from it;
Show others you’re willing to receive their knowledge and are eager to listen to their experiences;
Become a pillar for someone else, help them shine to ultimately become their best self;
Don’t expect from others — but do expect from yourself;
Always, always pay it forward;
Always give;
Never allow yourself to become entitled — always be generous;
Always invest in other’s success;
Lean to learn what’s your edge — and always work closely to it;
Evolve as much as you can without losing yourself in the process — have close at your heart your values;
Never trade your integrity for anything. Never;
Always speak good on others — even if you are not the fondest of them;
Always speak truth — rip the bandaid off quickly rather than slowly;
Seek depth in any endeavor you find yourself doing — the best treasures are always found within deepwater.
I sincerely hope this letter finds you and you are open to receiving it with love.
The world really is a blank canvas. It is our responsibility to paint on it with as much love as humanely possible if we wish to become a more prosperous, generous, and equal society.
