At times, we all need to change direction in life. We have a need to step away from, or pivot to, something new. Sometimes, we pivot back to something we’ve left behind.
For me, I’ve pivoted back to something I left behind. In what feels like a former life, I was a writer in the personal finance community for many years. I gave it up when I got too busy with kids and my corporate career.
But I missed it. I missed the opportunity to learn and to give back. I craved the connection and community.
I also had regret. I’ve realized that I often give up too soon on too many things.
My word of the year 2020 has been “Grit.” (Side note: Ironically I chose this word at the end of 2019; little did I know how much relevance it would have to this year in particular.) I have been trying extremely hard to use my head to remind myself of my resilience and tenacity when the other side of my brain is telling me to give up.
I was the original founder of Women’s Money Week, a week designed to bring awareness to women’s money issues in the personal finance space. In early 2020, I decided to reach out to the then owner of Women’s Money to ask if I could restart the week.
Fortunately, a unique opportunity presented itself for me to take over this website, WomensMoney.com.
So here I am. Here we are. It’s October 2020 and I am starting over.
I think for many of us, especially in these challenging times, it feels like we are all starting over. We are still trying to figure out what to do next.
I recently read, “Little Fires Everywhere.” One of the central themes in the book is starting over, and rebirth. One of my favorite quotes from the book is:
“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
That’s how I feel about so much of 2020; not just personally, but globally.
We have stopped nearly all travel. We have stopped commuting to jobs. We have stopped gallivanting the globe on vacations.
We have seen first-hand significant police brutality, leading to massive protests and actual fires burning portions of our cities to the ground.
We have witnessed wildfires burning much of our west coast.
We have been cut off physically from people we love.
I would never wish for an actual fire to burn something to the ground. But I think much of what has happened in 2020 resembles the setting of fires. When you do it, the soil will be richer so we can all start over and find a way.
