Post Pandemic Resolutions

Just over two years ago, we met for breakfast to discuss goal setting. I implore you to revisit the post. At the time I suggested that we take a stab at developing a five or ten year plan to help guide us through the ‘roaring twenties’. Little did I (or anyone else) know that there was a global pandemic looming around the corner. The past two years have been difficult to say the least. I wouldn’t hold anyone to their pre-pandemic plans. If the past two years has taught me anything, its to take things day-by-day and enjoy the little things on the journey of life instead of relentlessly planning for the destination.

As a fun thought exercise, S and I made a handful of decade long predictions at the beginning of 2020. That is – we created a list of things that we thought would occur before January 1st 2030.

• Taylor Swift gets married
• Quantum computing replaces encryption
• Automation/kiosks replace customer service workers
• First major city goes underwater
• Augmented reality wearable technology becomes mainstream
• Major city centres allow self-driving vehicles
• Electric vehicle sales outpace conventional vehicle sales
• First female president of United States is elected
• Major social media conglomerate goes bankrupt
• E-sports become Olympic sports
• Insect based protein becomes as popular as plant based proteins (i.e. Beyond Meat) are in 2020
• Man has set foot on Mars
• Bullet train between Calgary and Edmonton
• Vaping is banned
• Flames win Stanley Cup
• Canadian Stanley Cup drought continues

A black swan health crisis wasn’t on our list of things we thought would happen. Although even if it was – would we have planned for it? Probably not.

But the purpose of this breakfast isn’t to dwell on the lost time and opportunity of the past two years. It is to refocus ourselves on the future. I’d like to revisit the topic of goal setting and discuss it in the context of New Year’s Resolutions. Specifically Post-Pandemic Resolutions. I can’t say that I know when the pandemic will end – or when the endemic will begin. What I can say, is that I saw a Buckley’s “it tastes awful and it works” commercial for the first time in about two years and that has convinced me that the Deep State believes that we are nearing the finish line.

For that reason and since it’s January, I’ve felt a surge of energy and motivation to be my best self. I hope to emerge from isolation stronger and more resilient than ever before. At the first breakfast of 2022, we will be discussing our Post-Pandemic Resolutions.

• What hobbies or habits have you picked up over the past two years?
  • What have you dropped?
• How has the pandemic affected your long term planning philosophy?
  • Do you have a ‘plan’ for when we reach the endemic stage?
• How do you plan on maintaining a balanced and healthy life as we get back to normal?