Will You Pivot or Travel?

What were the biggest words from last year that stick in your mind? (COVID, vaccines, and boosters aside.)

Whether from the media, your workplace, your home, or your head, I invite you to take a minute to consider what one or two words might be.

If you stop to think about it, it’s likely they were words that either discouraged or encouraged you. It’s likely the words had some emotional pull.

For me, there were two words. Uncertainty and pivot.

When I heard the word uncertainty, the tendency was to experience some fear. Pivot, on the other hand, felt empowering and sure.

We’ll just pivot. Change course. Regain our stride. We can do it!

Today, however, the word pivot feels tired, flat, and confusing…..even while the word uncertainty isn’t going anywhere this year.

I have basketball and ballet lovers in my family. To pivot is common in both of these sports. It means to rotate without traveling. To keep your center as your turn. To pivot assumes we always have our bearings, and that there are multiple directions to go. It indicates that if we have one foot planted firmly on the ground, we can successfully turn without falling.

But, how often do we question where that one foot is planted? And, if we pivot all the time, are we actually traveling anywhere new?

I’d argue that it does not always serve us to start a new year assuming we know the right place from which to pivot. I think there’s great value in taking time to re-center ourselves first.

I also think we should consider giving tired words new meanings.

It might be that this year we allow the word uncertainty to generate a sense of curiosity and exploration, not fear about our futures as it felt intended to do in 2021. Maybe we allow the word pivot to remind us to get acquainted with what centers us in the moment, not to be stuck necessarily to what tethers us to the past.

Then, I think we should all commit to picking up both feet and traveling to somewhere new and better within ourselves this year.

It’s an uncertain time. Will you pivot or will you travel?

Love,

Molly