When unexpected bad things happen, it forces us to take inventory of our lives and where we are falling short. With our finances we can become so conditioned to tight times and a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle, that when there is a job loss, or the government deems your business non-essential and shuts you down, you can find yourself up a particular brown stained creek without a paddle. This is why we should take a lesson from 2020 and budget better, save better, and create more income streams, particularly ones that aren’t dependent upon a physical location. Keep learning and diversifying.

I’ve written a few blog posts about this every since the COVID-19 deal began. Look, we’ve got a problem in our country, and we’ve had it for a long time. Long before ‘ol COVID came to town. If you look at the statistics of those with underlying conditions like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer (generally lifestyle related) prior to getting the virus, it should scare you straight into living a healthy lifestyle. But the interesting thing is, people still aren’t learning their lesson. A HUGE lesson to take away from 2020 is you better start taking care of your health, fitness, and nutrition, because if you don’t, you’re becoming easier to kill.

Getting outside, breathing fresh air, absorbing Vitamin D, and moving our bodies is naturally one of the healthiest things we can do. Amongst all the quarantines, it was cool to see how many people found a newfound appreciation for just being outside. Many people already know this, but perhaps it took being forced inside for a long period of time for people to appreciate how great being outside is for your well-being. Sounds so simple doesn’t it? This whole healthy lifestyle thing. 

In the past year, I think we can all relate to this one. At one point or another we’ve found ourselves offended. Now, some people are pretty quick to the trigger these days and it’s honestly fascinating how people can find offense from a Facebook post that isn’t even aimed at them personally. It’s like people are actively looking to be pissed off. I don’t have to tell you this, but I’m going to anyway: being offended is a choice, and it’s such a waste of energy.

Despite having to spend more time than ever with one another, my hopes are that you are experiencing a deeper bond and love with your family members. Sure, my kiddos drive me absolutely bonkers at times, but I’ve cherished more the time we’ve spent hunting, fishing, reading books, watching movies, and rough housing. There may never present another time in our lives where we’ve had the opportunity to spend as much time together as a family. Now I’m sure the quarantines, virtual school, and working from home has presented a nightmarish situation many families, and for those families I hope they can breakthrough those obstacles within their 4 walls. So perhaps the biggest lesson 2020 has taught us is that the world can strip us away of whatever it wants, but what it can’t strip away the fact that family is everything, and this has only brought us closer together.