Although you may not realize it, you’ve likely used a Snellen Chart at some time. That’s the eye chart hanging on your optometrist’s wall which measures “visual acuity” – the clearness or sharpness of your vision. :
First developed in 1862, the top number is your distance in feet from the chart, and the bottom number is the distance at which a person with normal eyesight can read the same line. Normal vision is 20/20 – what an average individual can see on an eye chart when standing 20 feet away. While the chart itself is over 150 years old, the modern idiom that stems from it was first published in The Van Nuys News, in February 1949
“Hindsight is 20/20.”
What this means, of course, is that when we look back at a situation, we typically have a clearer understanding of it than we did at the time we were experiencing it. Given the events of this year, I imagine whoever wrote that first article had no idea how prophetic it would be as we end this year “2020.” It’s as if we’ve been waiting 71 years to use this phrase! As we look back on the year 2020, what hindsight do YOU™ have?
Never waste a good crisis
I know that most clients tell me they can’t wait for 2020 to be over, and I definitely understand that. But as Winston Churchill famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” There is so much to be learned from situations – or specific years – that didn’t turn out the way you anticipated or wanted.
To get the best possible use out of this year of crisis, below is a list of questions to consider. Pose these questions to yourself, your family members, your team members, and your friends, as you look back in hindsight on the year 2020.
- If you had known in January of this year how 2020 would unfold, what would you have said to yourself back then?
- How would you have changed your mindset about the year ahead?
- What would you have done differently, both then and throughout the year?
- What was the biggest learning you had about yourself in 2020?
- On a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = low, 10 = high), how resilient are you now as compared to when we started the year?
- In 2020, how did you demonstrate care for others?
- What’s one thing you did this year that surprised yourself?
- How have these learnings better prepared you for 2021?
I would love to hear the answers to these questions! Share your thoughts in the comments below. Thank you in advance!
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