2020: Reflections
2020, the year in which a decade-long change has happened, is over. Personally, it’s been a great year for me. None of the close family members were affected by COVID. Few distant relatives were affected but recovered. With less commute and more time at home and family, I am privileged and thankful to lead a healthy, happy life in this pandemic.
My main themes of 2020 are myself, money and mythology.
Myself: I had a lot of time to think about a few important things in my life. I also had some opportunities to invest in myself. I was lucky to be part of the first cohort of Art of Accomplishment by Joe Hudson. It had a profound impact on me. I connected with myself and understood my emotions a lot better. 2020 helped me to be more relaxed and be compassionate to myself. I will unpack more on the lessons from AoA in the upcoming posts.
Money: I am a newbie to personal finance and investments. I have dabbled in the stock market earlier. I have been lucky to witness the winnings and losses of my Dad’s side project as a stock trader. But in 2020, I took time to understand some of the key concepts of wealth creation. I understood the power of compounding, and the difference between investing and trading, thought well about my relationship with money.
Mythology: I enrolled in an online course about Mahabharata, a great Indian epic, comparable to Homer’s works. I have been fascinated by it and grabbed the opportunity to explore it with a group in this course. Stories have always captivated me. Stories bind us as humans and make us do great things. Yuval Harari calls everything from religion to human rights to country to money, as a story that we understand and relate to. Myths are your personal truths. Myths are full of such powerful stories that give meaning to life in terms of value and principles. 2020 was a time I used to understand more about such stories.