Episode Summary:
It’s the official one-year anniversary of covid quarantine in the US, and when covid sent many of us to work from home. Happy anniversary, and what a year it’s been! We don’t want to make light of the devastating impact the pandemic has had on people; so many people have died, so many jobs lost. But it’s also important to use difficult times to take a moment to step back and reflect and grow. So in this episode, we each share our top five reflections on the past year.
Episode Notes:
Here are Mike’s 5 reflections on the year:
- It’s important to identify little rewards for yourself, even if they cost money. Self-care is a real thing, and it’s something Maggie does well, and I’ve learned from her this year.
- The world’s shared experience seemed to find solidary in was no match for continued political partisan and racial tensions.
- Working from home has exposed the ridiculousness of the traditional office model. And I look forward to what I believe will be a renaissance for new models of employment.
- And along those same lines, the complete collapse of so many norms reinforced for me how meaningless so many “normal” things are: clothes, cars, gadgets and jewelry, and expensive services. It’s hard to see those things for what they are when there’s so much noise. But when the noise stops, they are exposed as ridiculous wastes.
- Travel is the most important activity in my life. I have renewed my commitment to leave the workforce soon to travel far and for long periods.
Here are Maggie’s 5 reflections on the year:
- This year reinforced and reminded me that I truly value the simple things in life, and it’s mostly all I need. It reminded me to appreciate the simple things in life and take enjoyment from them, like taking a walk in the middle of the day. And it reminded me there’s a better way to live.
- The flexibility provided by working remotely is something I want and desire more of in the future.
- I reaffirmed the value of financial freedom and why it matters to me. If things “go back to normal,” I have the freedom to do whatever I want. It’s a beautiful feeling.
- In a year of social inequality and racial injustice coming to a head, I learned what allyship truly means. I learned it’s no longer good enough to just not be something, but instead the importance of being more vocal and proactively anti-racist and what that truly means.
- I re-learned about the importance of civility and how much it matters in my life and to the world. This year, as a country, we lost the ability to disagree civilly on many topics. Financial topics are an interesting comparison to this; we have some strong financial views on here. We realize not everyone agrees with us, but we think talking about things can improve all of our lives, even if we disagree. And we hope and strive to disagree civilly and respectfully.