What was the №1 Word for 2020?
PIVOT
That’s right. Not COVID. Funny thing is, seeing these two words in print is quite interesting. Both five letters, both representing change. Both mysterious in the sense of the “unknown” for what lay ahead. What we thought we knew suddenly becomes unknown – and we react. We make a choice. We pivot.
…we are risk in action, the top of the breath and then the release…
We pivot when we skate and when we dance. It creates excitement, velocity. We move fast and unexpectedly to the observer, but we are in some controlled adrenaline that we may not have felt before. We are risk in action, the top of the breath and then the release. Will we stumble, land securely?
2020 will be remembered for the year time took on new meaning. We will reflect on what we did in “that” time, the time the world became gripped by COVID-19 and life went on.
I didn’t know at the start of 2020 any one thing would happen as it has. Not one. I didn’t know I would create an idea for an app, build a framework for a business with the help of Invest Ottawa, win a pitch finale, write blogs, join a community of start-up entrepreneurs, join an online local women’s group, sit on a panel, volunteer for newcomer Canadians, or actually try to build an app. Some might say I pivoted and some may say I showed resilience, but what I know is I learned to be open and afraid at the same time, the same feeling I had when I took a jump figure skating or let go of the high bar in gymnastics. A split second. A leap of faith.
I reflect now on what President John F. Kennedy said, “For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look to the past or the present are sure to miss the future”.
To pivot is to be fluid. We have to keep moving right into 2021.
Photo by Ryan Jacobson on Unsplash
