2020: New Year Awaits an Old Kind of Eyesight Known as Hindsight

Welcome to 2020, a year I'm crediting to an emerging -- if somewhat resistant -- form of eyesight known as hindsight.

Unlike those who anticipate an ominous or threatening 2020, I am sensing quite the opposite. I'm calling 2020 an auspicious year. As the word suggests, I'm prognosticating good, favorable and fortunate outcomes.  Whether on an individual, national or global level, that's where I believe our greater humanity is headed.

The Old Adage about Hindsight

As our previous decade came to a close and December of 2019 was winding down, I was continually musing about 2020. I didn't see it as much of a new year as I perceived it as a form of eyesight.

First, I was reminded that opticians regard 20/20 as ideal eyesight, but I was continually considering the old adage that claims hindsight as 20/20.  The familiar saying that "Hindsight is always 20/20" refers to the wisdom, insight and life lessons we glean when we view something only after it's occurred, but not before or during. Hindsight requires us to go through an event or experience. Somehow, when on the other side of the mountain, we can "see" and understand what was previously hidden, distorted or otherwise obscured from view.

Whether we're looking back upon our own decisions and behaviors or assessing the effects of individuals, unexpected circumstances or even traumatic events around us, hindsight helps us in unintended -- but ultimately benevolent -- ways. Hindsight helps awaken us from slumber and often shocks us out of stupor so we are able to view our past with greater clarity and perspective.

Facing Change With a Different Outlook

Most of us are resistant to change, even when uncomfortable or miserable in our current state. Fortunately, when viewed from a different angle, change can help us set forth on a better path with potentially brighter outcomes ahead.

We may or may not enjoy the process of looking back on our life. Doing so requires some introspection and courage. We might have to face the loss of our innocence, ignorance or naivete. Alternatively, we may regret previous decisions or unfortunate behaviors. We might be forced to consider things like our own self-centeredness, compromise, lack of self esteem or even laziness. Much akin to the grief process, these are hard places to walk through, precisely because they're so personal in nature.

Yet viewed from a different perspective, we can discover much we hadn't considered before. For example, through the eyes of hindsight, we can literally see how certain thoughts, beliefs, intentions and behaviors have limited us in our past. On another note, we may understand we were thinking and emoting as children when we should have been growing into maturity.

Hindsight can be our greatest catalyst to changes that open our mind to completely new choices and new directions. Our rear view mirror may become a welcome and fortuitous moment to discover a new purpose, freedom and enlightenment.

If we are willing and courageous enough (or even if we presently believe we're not), we just might record 2020 as the auspicious year when our life lessons in hindsight have benefited us in ways we'd never previously thought, hoped for or even imagined.

A strikingly fresh vision may be just the what our soul had been seeking.

That's my idea of good news for a happy 2020 and beyond!

New Year Podcast

Continuing with the theme of seeing things from a new perspective in 2020 and beyond, I'm introducing my latest podcast entitled The House You Dwell In.

It offers not only a basic explanation of why my podcast is all about "Living Happy - Inside Out," but it provides some personal information about how I acquired -- and made the best of -- my own hindsight in life.

I hope it speaks to you as you consider looking anew at some of the ways you've internalized your mental house and perspectives. Perhaps you'll determine that in making use of hindsight, you might be ready to change, rearrange or ditch some of your no longer suitable mental furniture, too.

Click here for Podcast 160: The House You Dwell In.

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