That was the year that…

That was the year that…..(please feel free to fill in the blank)

To be read while listening to Perfect Year by Dina Carroll

Well, 2021 was the year we were all going back to normal – business as usual and life as we knew it pre-pandemic. Well, that didn’t go to plan, did it?

Over the last couple of weeks, preceding Christmas, during Chrimbo Limbo and to date, my inbox has been clogged with the blogs and newsletters from folk reflecting on all that 2021 brought them.

They range from the “woe is me” mood hoovers, to the vomit inducing “look at me and count my millions” pivoting pariahs, with very little real life in between. Most of them are also selling me stuff!

So, as we get to grips with 2022, I bring you my somewhat late take on it all, brought to you in conjunction with my good friends – perspective & balance.

Last year started with a dash of post festive positivity, which increased as the doors opened and diminished as the Covid strains mutated. It was in out, in out, don’t shake it all about as we went through another round of Covid hokey kokey (other spellings are available).

Masks on, masks off. Tables of six to a free for all. The paper trail that came to those brave enough to blow the dust off their passports changed during the flight and multiplied as the pool side cocktails were inhaled.

The scammers came out in their hoards from under their rocks of depravity and people paid through the nose, literally, to prove they were “safe” to travel.

But it’s ok, Christmas wasn’t cancelled, Boris wouldn’t dare after last years government cheese and wine farce and 2022 limped in like a late-night reveller doing the walk of shame.

Today is my first day back at the office and like most of you I don’t know what will happen, I have no control over it. What I do have is the control over how I deal with it. How I can make the best of yet another year that promises nothing more than the unknown and the misunderstood.

Plans, goals and targets are already being reviewed as venue-based events in January hang in the balance.

With no promise of grants and government support in my industry I could wallow and hide under the misery blanket, instead I sit before you wearing my perspective specs and my Network She Big Girl Positivity Pants – we can do this!