Hindsight is 20/20
Happy new year!
The beginning of a new year is a good time for looking back and, as this new year is also the start of a new decade, it's a good time to reflect on the past ten years and examine them for lessons learned because, as they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
The phrase hindsight is 20/20 implies that you can see the past more clearly than you can see the present or the future. From the current vantage point, you can see what you should have done. And this kind of introspection is good. It can help us plan future endeavors better and create more realistic goals.
When I look back over the last ten years, I see a lot of false starts and a lack of follow-through; I have a list of projects I'm working on and, for each one that is stalled or unfinished, it is because of one of three issues: Some things get derailed by life's vagaries or exigent circumstances. Some things are just not as good as I feel they could be, a.k.a., if I can just learn this one skill then I can finish that project the way I envision it in my head! And, last, some things are follow-ups to projects that were successful and the idea of having to live up to a previous level of success is petrifying.
At the same time, I have to remember that of the very few projects I saw all the way to completion, most of them met with some kind of success.
So, the lessons I'm taking with me from the past decade are:
Finish what you start.
It's okay if it's not perfect.
Don't let fear of success stall a project.
***
Here's an exercise: You are given the ability to replay a critical time in your life, retaining all the knowledge and wisdom you've gained since. Do you do things the same way, but better? Do you make the "right" choice this time? Or do you do things differently? Do you take the path not previously taken, trusting that all the knowledge you have now will serve you well in your new adventures?
I've written a couple of short stories about this very idea. (They're available here and here, for free.) I don't have a good answer, but it's something I think about when I start feeling like I've screwed everything up. And the conclusion I reluctantly come to is that, I would choose a different path even knowing that I would make a whole bunch of new mistakes. The past is what it is and should be cherished for what we learned from it.
Definition:
From Writing Explained:
Choices that seemed difficult in the past now seem clear after the person knows what happened as a result of those choices.
Origin(s):
20/20 is a measurement of visual acuity.
Visual acuity is how sharp your vision is, i.e. how clearly you can see things from a distance.
Most of us have our visual acuity checked via a Snellen chart, i.e. the usual eye chart where rows of characters are printed bigger to smaller as you move down the rows.
The chart is named after Herman Snellen, a Dutch ophthalmologist, who created it in 1862.
20/20 means that you can read the same row of letters on the chart as everyone else can from twenty feet away.
In other countries, the distance is measured in meters and 20/20 = 6/6.
It is possible to have better than 20/20 vision.
Notable Events of 1862:
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2020
Of course, the other currently-trending take on 2020 is the new year and all the potential and possibility that entails. Here are some interesting takes on predicting the year 2020:
The BBC’s Amol Rajan has a more serious look at the coming year.
Quantum Run has a massive list of more than 300 predictions for 2020.
And, last, Best Life has another humorous list of missed predictions.
Next time: Such is life. That's it. Stay strong, stay curious. Learn something.