Gratitude for 2020

2020 was a year of highs and lows, like any year. And, like any year, I like to frame it as going from high-to-high, rather than from low-to-low. Same path, but better memories. Am I just being tone deaf and ignoring all the suffering of the year? Nope. When the pandemic hit I had already been unemployed for 8 months. I eventually just stopped looking. My wife was laid off for months. I didn't get to see my young grandson even once. We missed annual gatherings with family and friends, some of which for the first time ever. 
 
But we all know about that, and much worse. However, it can be easy to forget about the good stuff. I find that when I focus on what I have, instead of what I don't have, every day is better. So, here's my personal list of why 2020 was awesome...
 

• Reruns of old shows, because I’m old enough to remember before streaming, before DVDs, before videotapes, there was a time when if you missed it, you missed it. 
• Slowing down enough to re-learn how to cook, to ride my bike every day through the state park, to walk to get the mail, to breathe slower, to appreciate more, to be in the moment. 
• I learned how to cut my own hair, and not a buzz cut either. Actual scissors. 
• My wife landed her favorite job ever. She works at a small charter airline, and has regular contact with planes, helicopters, and even minor celebrities. Plus, she loves her co-workers, and they think she’s awesome too.  
• My daughter completed her Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering, with minors in Biology and Biochemistry and a concentration in Bioengineering Applications and Pre-med. Plus, Cum Laude, Sobey Scholar, and she was inducted into a leadership honor society that only accepts 1% of the students every year!
• My brother and his partner launched their Tru-Tone authentic color LED Christmas lights, got rave reviews, and they sold out in a few weeks. 
• Baby Yoda, because Baby Yoda!
• I invented a new game - Disc Golf Biathlon. It’s like the Olympic event which combines cross-country skiing and target shooting, except this combines running and 36 holes of disc golf played as fast as possible. 
• I discovered networked notes, or software that links notes with other notes (in both directions). For a compulsive notetaker and thinker like me, this discovery was pure gold. 
• I played Dungeons & Dragons every week with my youngest son and six of his friends from around the country. One long and several mini adventures, and great social time with some really funny and clever people. 
• I got to drive an Audi TT for the first time. It’s been my dream car for 20 years. 
• My unsolicited music video celebrating friendships was used to close out the 2020 Virtual Chicago Pinball Expo. 
• I discovered the band Gloryhammer and their trilogy of albums. It’s a super-cheesy, super-fun epic symphonic metal romp with songs like “The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee”. It actually inspired me to develop a Gloryhammer good & evil pinball machine concept I think is actually unique in the industry.
• A grant application was approved to create a museum to honor my great grandfather’s Shelby Bicycle Co.
• I found a partner that would like to combine my wooden toy design with a learning system they are developing. 
• I looked forward to group video calls several times a week with deep thinkers around the globe. I’ve chatted with people in Ohio, Florida, Oregon, California, Minnesota, New York, British Columbia, Toronto, Germany, UK, Switzerland, France, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, New Zealand, and Australia.
• Because of the personal responsiveness and encouragement of world-class strength coach Dan John, I rebooted my minimalist garage gym strength training. I’m now physically stronger than I’ve ever been (and I keep records, so I know).
• I discovered the brilliant Systems Thinking work of Derek and Laura Cabrera, connected with them personally, and the way I think about things has forever changed. 
• I made massive progress on what might be my magnum opus - Thinking Skills for Kids. It’s been accelerating for the last six months. For most of December I was waking up in the middle of the night and working for an hour or two. My new framework, toolset, and teaching method integrates things I’ve been working on since 1995 - 25 years! This will be out in the world in 2021.
• I started Moehr Better LLC, a company of one. 
• I built a “Days Until Broke” spreadsheet based on a common tech startup model. It tracks Total Available Cash divided by Average Daily Spend for the last 30 days. That gives us a single number (updated monthly) that turned our finances into a game that we actually started to win. 
• I made the last payment on my car. My wife made the last payment on her car. Wow. Free and clear. 
• With the support of family and friends and coworkers, we’ve been given gifts of food and freelance work, money and medicine, appreciation and meaning. Old friends were faithful. New friends were grateful. 

 
Was it tough going at times? Sure thing. But I won’t let that overshadow all the good that happened. I can’t wait for what’s next. Happy New Year!