It is hard to believe that we are soon approaching the end of another year. Has anyone else felt that time has moved even quicker since the COVID-19 pandemic?

It has been a busy month for me, and no doubt for you, too! I have had a lot of projects to finish and then, of course, Christmas shopping and the events that come with the Season.

But now I remind myself I have a choice. I can continue to keep ramping up high speed throughout the holidays with social outings and doing lots of prep work to blast into an exciting new work year, or, I can allow myself some time to rest. I don’t have to keep going at the pace that I have been carrying on now. Yes, I needed to have an energy burst to complete some things I had been working on, but I now get to choose if I take my foot off the gas pedal or not.

This picture was taken for my MBA graduation. I had been working for a few years after my university undergrad and then college education when I decided to go back to school on weekends to pursue an MBA. When I graduated from this program, I was 27 years old. I had just signed on for a new job with General Motors and got my first signing bonus. In many ways, I was flying high on life and felt anything was possible. I was smart, super ambitious, and ready for anything that came my way…or so I thought.

After experiencing a brain injury 10 years ago, the death of my Dad and husband, Jeff, to cancer within a few years of each other, and then came the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to reach down deeper within myself than I knew even existed. What have I learned about life and my career along the way? And, what do I wish I could have told my younger self?