Peace, Purpose, Empowerment…
After the year that 2020 turned out to be, these are the top wishes I have for 2021, both for myself and all of our SEEK supporters. Here’s why:
Peace
After a tumultuous 2020, I just want some peace! It was a year of loss, a year of uncertainty, a year of facing challenges we’ve never faced before. And this has been true for everyone, even if it has struck us in different ways. Managing all of that unexpected change and challenge has been exhausting. We need a break!
Although this pandemic is not over yet, we are able to see the end to it. There’s hope, and even if times are still going to be challenging, painful even, I think we can still find some peace just from the promise of this particular challenge ending.
Purpose
It was a year that changed us all in many ways, so our second wish for you is that you find some purpose–both to the grief of the year behind us and to sink yourself into in the year ahead. We’re big believers in the idea of meaning as a sixth stage of grief. It’s what SEEK is for us–empowering other seekers brings meaning to Kirby’s death, an otherwise meaningless loss. Grief will pull us back into the sadness of it, unless we can create some purpose to it that drives us forward. We all lost many things this year, including loved ones; creating some meaning is an essential part of grappling with those losses. It might take a while to find meaning, though, and that’s ok. Let it be something to look forward to.
There’s a second side to the idea of purpose. This year forced many of us to reconsider the lives we’ve been living to this point. We were reminded of the things that really matter to us, or dreams we’ve put aside. Or maybe a job loss has forced us into the position of reconsidering our path. I think 2021 will be a big year of seeking–redefining values, envisioning a new life, finding purpose. If self-help is already something like an $11 billion per year industry, I expect 2021 will see it grow further. We hope to help people along that journey.
Empowerment
And lastly, as a core tenet of SEEK’s mission, we hope you find empowerment in the year ahead. 2020 was a year where we experienced that feeling of being dragged along by events out of our control. We’ve had to just accept that to some extent, so that we didn’t let the discomfort of that experience close us off. 2021, in contrast, will be a year of us finding our footing in this new setting, and taking back control.
This is especially important as we do take on that journey of finding purpose. At SEEK, we emphasize that seeking is a noble and essentially human drive. And many of us will turn to outside resources–teachers, books, seminars, groups–to guide us on that journey. These resources can be essential to our self-improvement journey. But we all need to centre ourselves in that process and remember that we’re always the ones in control of it. And when positive things come out of these efforts, we also need to remember that first and foremost, our victory is because of our effort. This is what we mean by empowerment: Be the leader of your effort and the owner of your success.
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The BYOG Brainstorm
With these wishes for you in mind, we are putting together a seeker-centred event. The “Be Your Own Guru Brainstorm” on March 5th will be an interactive exercise to both inform and engage seekers. SEEK speakers will share some of our knowledge about safe self-help, and we hope to help you, the seekers, create some take-aways from our session that can be a roadmap for your own seeking journey. ✨
This event is *FREE* and virtual–no financial or geographic roadblocks!
Sign up for updates about the event.
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What do you hope to create, accomplish, or find this year?
