It’s a controversial stance but I’m taking it anyway:

2020 is a year to celebrate.

I know you’re rolling your eyes pretty heavily right now and wondering if I’m a few sandwiches short of a socially-distanced afternoon tea. But hear me out…

Okay, let’s get the obvious out of the way first.

2020 has been a god-awful year in so many ways.

• Working from home has been hard. Being furloughed has been hard.
• Homeschooling has been hard.
• Cancelling holidays, birthday celebrations, and anniversary parties has been hard.
• Missing loved ones has been really, really hard.

All of that is true. And yet all of that is precisely the reason we should ALL be celebrating right now.

Because we got through it. We’re still getting through it.

And we’re not just surviving: we’re absolutely thriving.

In so many ways.

Just think about everything this year has given you:

• Your moody teenager — who normally fails to acknowledge your very existence, naturally — actually spent an evening playing Monopoly with the rest of the family. And didn’t even have a hissy fit when you stuck a hotel on Mayfair and bankrupted him right when he was about to win the whole damn game.
• You dug your bike out from the depths of the garage, dusted it off, and took it for a spin during your government-sanctioned hour of exercise. Now your legs feel stronger, your butt feels firmer, and you’re wondering precisely what the age limit might be for Tour De France participants…
• You had no idea — until you sat down at the kitchen table turned classroom — just how much interest your 10-year-old had in all things history related. Cue many fascinating conversations and a few planned trips to local castles and national monuments when they reopen.
• You spent your precious week off work at home…and absolutely loved it! No packing for the entire family. No last-minute dash to get to the airport on time. No five-hour flight with grumpy children and a pounding headache. Who knew you could have such a relaxing time by staying at home, exploring your local area, getting out and about in nature, and saving a fortune in the process? Oh, and by the end of the week, you actually FELT like you’d had a holiday.

Okay, so I know that we haven’t all faced the same difficulties this year — we may be in the same storm but we’re definitely not all in the same boat. Some of you will have faced some truly awful things over the past few months. However, I’m willing to bet that every single one of you has something to celebrate.

All you have to figure out is where to look for the places in your life you’re now thriving.

Maybe it’s the smaller things like the creation of a morning routine that makes you feel AMAZING even on a bleak Monday. Maybe you’ve found the time to connect on a deeper level with someone you love — whether in person or over Zoom. Maybe you’ve found new ways of exercising during lockdown that you’re determined to keep up long-term.

Or perhaps it’s something more profound — a significant shift in your priorities. The creation of some really healthy boundaries. The realisation that you want to spend less time trying to escape from your life and more time embracing the aspects of it that you love.  Maybe you’ve been surprised by your own resilience in the face of true adversity.

Whatever it is, gorgeous, this is your win, your achievement, your confirmation that you are in fact, a true superstar.

You’ve found real beauty in the midst of a global pandemic. Even if it was something tiny, even if it was fleeting, it was there, it was yours, and you grabbed hold of it.

And that, my lovely, is something worth celebrating.

My 2020 celebration moment? The Balance Club’s first birthday. I’m thrilled at how far the club has come in just a year (especially this year!), and at how many wonderful, strong, resilient women are making it the place they go when they want to find the happy in the crappy. If you’d like to join us (and I’d love to welcome you in), pop your name on the waiting list and I’ll be sure to give you a shout as soon as the doors open again.