2020: Reflections - Part 1

2020, the year in which a decade-long change has happened, is over. Personally, its been a great year for me. None of close family members were affected by COVID. Few distant relatives were affected but recovered. With less commute, more time at home and family, I am privileged and thankful to lead a healthy, happy life in this pandemic.

My main themes of 2020 is: myself, money and mythology.

Myself: I had a lot of time to think about few important things in my life. I also had some opportunities to invest on myself. I was lucky to be part of the first cohort of Art of Accomplishment by Joe Hudson. It had a profound impact on me. I connected with myself and understood my emotions a lot better. 2020 helped me to be more relaxed and be compassionate to myself. I will unpack more on the lessons from AoA in the upcoming posts.

Money: I am newbie to personal finance and investments. I have dabbled in stock market earlier. I have been lucky to witness the winnings and losses of my Dad’s side project as a stock trader. But in 2020, I took time to understand some of the key concepts of wealth creation. I understood the power of compounding, difference between investing and trading, thought well on my relationship with money.

Mythology: I enrolled in an online course about Mahabharata, a great Indian epic, comparable to Homer’s works. I have been fascinated about it and grabbed the opportunity to explore with a group in this course. Stories have always captivated me. Stories bind us as humans and makes us to do great things. Yuvan Harrari calls everything from religion to human rights to country to money, as a story that we understand and relate to. Myths are your personal truths. Myths are full of such powerful stories that give meaning to life in terms of value and principles. 2020 was a time I used to understand more on such stories.