I’m sitting in a hotel room in quarantine as I write this and contemplate what the heck just happened in 2020. To sum, it was a train wreck. What started out as a promising year turned from bad to worse as the pandemic hit. I started 2020 in Mexico City with my buddy and really enjoyed myself.
There was news reports of some new coronavirus from China as I was there but didn’t really think much about it. I very distinctly remember my brother and girlfriend making a huge stink about it, but nobody else I talked to expected what was about to happen. But at the same time, I noticed I was getting weird, negative reactions as I continued my journey in Colombia.
I have strong memories in February and March of cab drivers getting a little hostile and rude. I had one Uber driver writing to her friend on WhatsApp that she thought she was going to get coronavirus from me, in Spanish, as she was driving. Rude. I had waiters who didn’t want to serve me and pharmacists try to shoo me away. I had a bunch of immigration officers straight up yell at me because I was Asian. This was in Panama, about as close as I would get to Canada before heading further south to Argentina and Brazil. So I had to make a decision quickly as to continue my journey or return home. I had a few hours to decide as I headed to the airport. That was a bad day. A few hours later, the WHO declared a pandemic, and Canada, Brazil, and Argentina locked their borders.
The next 6 months were pretty much the same. I left the house a grand total of 5 times and basically worked and worked out to pass the days. I picked up a PS4 as I was starting to burn out from work a bit and would spend the hour before bedtime playing some games. I played more games in 2020 than the previous decade combined and have had my fill for the next little while.
Work itself was great. mailfloss is so much further along now and grew quite well. As a product, it is so much better than the competitors in so many ways and I’m very happy with where it finished in 2020.
The last quarter of the year was an insane blitz. As I was planning my work goals I read some quote from Elon Musk or something about condensing your 10-year plan down to 6 months, and I decided to give it a try. I don’t even remember the quote, or if it was Elon, and probably saw it on some stupid motivational Instagram post. But I thought I’d give it a try anyway, and went balls out.
Around the same time, other things sort of sprung up out of the blue. Some countries’ restrictions were loosening up, and I needed to get back to Thailand. That process was not easy. There was an obstacle every step of the way. I’d book a plane ticket, and the transiting country would ban transit. I’d buy some insurance, and the insurance requirement would change. I’d book a covid test at a testing location, and all of a sudden customs was seizing the test samples. I’d call every doctor’s office in the city asking if they’d write a doctor’s note and all would say no. The one office that said yes would continue to say yes after following up with them four times, until it was time to get the note. Everything dragged on and on. Everything took longer than usual. Everything was a damn negotiation.
Then there were the junkies, dealers, and crackheads. How do I even write this part, I’m not sure. Let me just say that there are some real fucking scumbags on this planet, and they are close by. Not just in the movies or tv shows. Not far away in the news. They’re right there around the corner. And when you have to deal with them, it ain’t pretty.
If I learned anything in 2020, it is that the bar got fucking low. It is so easy to be just a little bit better these days. To be a little kinder, a little more patient, a little more empathetic. Because everyone else is miserable and it shows. The new average is simply not to suck, and it’s sad. But you can’t blame people, either. When you have news as unreliable and inaccurate as we’ve had, politicians and governments who don’t know what they’re doing, social media companies being incredibly greedy and irresponsible, and corporations who dgaf about anything except increasing share prices, it’s no wonder everyone is upset.
The only thing you can do is be better. Even if you get the shit end of the stick over and again, as I did in many scenarios. I remember scrubbing the back of a toilet covered in someone else’s shit on Christmas day and thinking fuck this shit (literally), but that’s how it goes sometimes. You can whine about it or you can be better. You’re allowed to be upset, and you’re allowed to be pissed, and you’re allowed to complain. You can do all those things and still be better. To be just a little kinder. To be a little more patient. Even when you are arguing with dispatch who is lying to you when you call 911 for help. Even when the police show up 4 hours late to an emergency situation. Even when your friends ghost you and are completely unreliable. These things and more all happened to me in 2020. Oh, and never forget, nobody cares.
But I refuse to stoop to these new normal levels of shit. For no other reason except because I can. Hard times make hard (wo)men. The others can fold and be shitty and weak and petty. I choose not to because I’m better. And you’re better.
This year I didn’t read that much, only 9 books, the least amount I’ve read in about a decade. I was really focused on business, and by the time I was finished, I was too knackered to read and use more brain, and figured video games would be a better use of my spare time. I felt that this was the right move in 2020 but do hope I will read a little more this year. The books that I did read were mostly business type books and I thoroughly enjoyed a number of them including “Building a Story Brand”, “Obviously Awesome”, “Traction”, and “The Ultimate Sales Machine”.
2020 was the year I became somewhat fluent in Spanish and made massive gains at a school in Colombia. By the time I left, I felt quite confident and was having conversations with locals, could ask for directions, order food, go shopping, and felt comfortable doing so. This made me quite happy as Spanish is a language I’ve been trying to learn for years.
The last thing I wanted to mention is my gym gains. I was also quite happy here. I lifted every day despite previously lifting only 3 days a week. The conventional wisdom is that you need rest days to recover. And yet I was breaking personal bests and felt great on a daily regimen. I felt the focus in the gym was a nice break from sitting in front of the computer and I liked seeing the numbers go up.
I’m glad 2020 is over and I am positive 2021 is going to be a much better year in just about every way. If you went through a hard time and are possibly still going through one know that you are not alone and things will get better as they always do. Hang in there, you got this.