Month-in-Review Highlights: November 2020

This very on-point theater performance unknowingly planned its debut just after Lausanne’s canton in Switzerland decided to go into a second (albeit less restrictive) confinement. November 21, 2020. Lausanne, Switzerland.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends, reflecting on what happened in general and, more specifically, in the context of my goals. Though I don’t share all my insights here, I have made it a practice to share at least one key highlight or insight. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

I spent time over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend looking at my 2020 goals as a whole and thinking through, in rough-sketch form, my 2021 goals.

The process provided an exercise in reflecting yet again on how differently 2020 unfolded than what I’d imagined or could have expected. However, as oddly as the year has transpired, it has provided valuable perspective. I think we all see room for changes.

Before you protest: Correct, Switzerland does not celebrate Thanksgiving (nor does France or anywhere else in Europe). However, FrogDog is a U.S. corporation with a client base in the United States. Everyone in my professional world took four days away from their work computers—and I sure as heck took advantage of the break as well.

I even tried cooking a few American-style comfort foods: chili, macaroni and cheese, and apple crumble (which Arnaud put together, to his credit). We added a salad at an attempt at healthfulness.

Our Thanksgiving dinner of homemade comfort foods. Not bad for two noncooks, right? November 26, 2020.

Back to the topic at hand: How did I progress against my 2020 goals in November 2020 (at least as far as I’ll willingly confess here)?

I had a heavy workload in November (as I did in September and October, quite frankly), so the new partial-confinement orders in my Swiss canton of Vaud didn’t affect me much. (Note for the unaware: Consider a “canton” in Switzerland as something like a state or even a county within a state in the United States.) Confinement or no confinement, I needed to lock myself into my home office and focus.

This, by its nature, continued my 2020 trend of not making new friends in this part of world. Further, it compounded the friends challenge by making it more difficult even to connect with my long-distance people. And it compromised my ability to attend arts and cultural events and locations to broaden my horizons and help me feel part of a creative universe. Yes, I had 2020 goals in all these areas.

Given the external causes for many of my 2020 goal deficits, I figure I can at least allow a little slack on my guilt leash.

However, I can’t deny that this fall—reaching lovely crescendos in November—brought home heavily the effects of the year’s accumulated stress, strain, and isolation. I hope December, vaccines on the horizon, and making beautiful plans for the months ahead will make everything feel a little lighter.