The Possible and the Impossible – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

On what we were capable of, and a thank-you for 2020

Photo by Pete Pedroza on Unsplash

2020 is ending, and it feels like the blink of an eye since last December, when I was writing about the start of the decade and about short, medium and long-term goals. The Covid-19 pandemic leaves us many lessons, and there’s one reflection I want to close the year with: how the possible and the impossible come together, and everything we were capable of in 2020. Read on.

This year has very likely left a permanent mark on the whole planet. It has many faces, and its scale multiplies across every human being on earth, everything we went through ourselves and every thought that crossed our minds (the number is enormous). The size of the problem is hard to imagine, and its passage through the world will leave a great deal to discuss and solve.

So how do we plan for 2021, knowing everything that has happened in recent months? On one hand, with faith and trust that as long as we keep making every effort within reach to achieve our dreams, there will always be a result or a lesson. In other words, we’ll always get something back. It will also pay to put into practice everything we lived, learned and carried out, which brings me to the next strategy.

Events this significant always leave big lessons and big strategies for life. We used to talk about Change (with a capital C), Resilience and Execution. 2020 leaves us a great lesson in how we managed to learn, on the fly, things that seemed impossible, blurry and unintelligible, under enormous pressure (more than we could have imagined), with no superhuman strength or superpower to make the difficulty vanish in a heartbeat the way we’re used to. In short, we did impossible things.

That is why 2021 is, and will remain, a year to keep thinking about and building our future. Everything that has happened should stay visible and be remembered constantly, like the resilience we managed to develop. Like every year we’ve lived, the next one will bring plenty of challenges, along with joys and satisfactions, and one way or another they’ll soon find their balance, and before we know it we’ll be reaping the rewards again.

Doing what is possible is in our hands. Doing the impossible is in our minds and in our hands. I invite you to think about how promising a year can be when everything we set out to be, do and have takes us down paths that benefit us personally (spiritually, materially and emotionally) and benefit the world around us, always remembering that the greatest happiness lies in sharing.

Whatever challenge we’ve been through, here we are, still moved by faith and by the human spirit that knows the best is yet to come. What slipped out of our hands, or left this earth, leaves a memory that will never fade. I hope what lies ahead fills that space with the kind of hope that makes us feel and admire how beautiful life is when we live it in harmony and give the very best of ourselves as human beings.

If you’ve read this far, I wish you a 2021 full of health, challenges and satisfaction. Thank you for reading my posts every Sunday, for every message I’ve received and, above all, for giving me the chance to share my ideas, my thoughts and my ways of making sure the life we choose and the decisions we make are always guided by our Purpose. Happy 2021.

A big, big hug,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. This week’s VELA:

• What I was Watching: Luis Alberto Spinetta, full concert at the Casa Rosada (HQ). A great Argentine artist whose work I discovered back then through my close friend Sergio. This concert is worth watching from start to finish, especially for the faces of so many generations humming along to his songs, and of course for how special all his compositions are.
• What I was Listening to: Wim Hof Interview | The Tim Ferriss Show (Podcast). I’ve followed Tim Ferriss for many years, since reading several of his books (Tools of Titans, Tribe of Mentors and others). This interview is powerful, and the depth of his questions is what lets you understand the message of Wim Hof and his method.
• What I was Reading: 12 Rules for Life. I hope to finish it before the year is out, and it will very likely be one of the first books I reread right after. By the way, I’ve already ordered the author’s next book, the sequel to this one, and it looks very promising: Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life
• What I was Learning: Can anxiety work in your favor? A masterful talk on how to deal with anxiety and whether we can actually use it to our advantage when facing what we see as problems in life. I personally suffer from anxiety, and it’s something I struggle with every day, today more than ever.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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