Things I'm Grateful For In 2020

5 Things I’m Grateful For In 2020 As A Travel Blogger

2020 has been tough in a lot of ways. We all know this. But has it been a write-off? Sometimes I wonder how many people fall into the trap of hearing something go around and letting it become their thought process instead of analyzing it for themselves. It seems like many people repeat common phrases or headlines like ‘2020 is trash’ without a lot of substance behind it. Is it really trash or are you just letting what you hear influence your thoughts? Have you thought about anything positive from the year? For me, I think there are always positives if you look for them. If nothing else, growth comes from hard times. Maybe you don’t feel it in the moment, but there’s always something to be gained from difficult times. Today, I’m not covering the hard stuff or the challenges of the year. I’m offering a different perspective with 5 things I’m grateful for in 2020.

5 Things I’m Grateful For In 2020 As A Travel Blogger

This year wasn't a complete waste. Here's a real talk look at the things I'm grateful for in 2020 as a travel blogger.

I’m grateful for clarity and focus

It feels like life was stripped down to the bare bones in a way this year.

The distractions, the superficial, and the glamorous stuff dissolved away. We were left with the raw elements.

And with that, came a crystal clear clarity and focus.

I felt this particularly for my blog work, but also for life in general. It feels like a path was exposed that removed everything that wasn’t absolutely meaningful and necessary. Materially, my life was kind of already set up like that, but I still had some work to do on the intangibles.

It gave me a clear understanding of what I want to achieve from my blog, how I want to make an impact, and what I want to be known for.

It also gave me a clear focus on the opposite as well – what I don’t want my blog and life to become.

I feel focused on fulfillment. No more wasting time on people that don’t bring anything to the table – I deserve more than the bare minimum, or things I don’t really want to do, or making excuses for people who don’t deserve it.

No hate (got no time or energy for that) but I’ll love you from a distance while I keep doing my own thing.

I have a refreshed dedication to fulfillment, working on myself, doing things in service to others, and not sweating the little things.

I feel grateful for this perspective and focus.

How it exposed people

The first two are really interlinked and I think how the year exposed everyone worked in partnership with giving me a clear sense of focus.

And boy, did it expose everyone. We got to see who people really are without distractions and while under pressure. In my opinion, that’s when you see the true character.

I think the way it exposed travel bloggers is why I got such a clear focus for my blog because I thought ‘OK, I never want to become that.”

It exposed an industry full of people that were completely out of touch.

The way people complained as if not taking 20 trips this year is a tragedy was very off-putting.

It proved who had character, who was working on themselves, and who had a life outside of Instagram. We saw who has a blog to provide value for others and who was reliant on flexing a glamorous life for their self-esteem.

We saw bloggers complain about how hard they had been hit financially while begging for support from followers. Only to follow it by flexing how they were filling their houses with luxuries many people wouldn’t get in a good year.

No one should ever apologize for being successful – if you’ve put the work in and built a successful business, enjoy the fruits of that. But it’s good to have a reality check and read the room a little. Maybe it could’ve been done without the sympathy cries and trying to get more money out of people who have less than you.

Not only in blogging, but we saw how everyone reacted to challenges. I saw who stayed focused, who helped others, who adapted, and who was self-centered.

I saw who let their own emotions and trauma influence them to cut others down, judge them, or ignore them.

To me, it was a year of exposure.

I’m grateful it gave me clarity on who I choose to spend my time with either online or in real life. It strengthened the positive connections I have with people and dissolved the others.

Local adventures

One thing I’m certainly grateful for this year is how it put a spotlight on local adventures.

I know this is a bit unpopular for a travel blogger, but I don’t have a strong feeling of missing travel this year.

For real, I don’t. I don’t feel like I’ve missed out. Sure, I have canceled trips and will be excited to travel overseas again when it’s possible.

But for now, it is what it is.

I don’t really feel like I’ve missed out because my focus just switched to local adventures. I still feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of new places.

Whether it’s been a new hike, new local tour, new local food spot I’d never tried there have still been new experiences. Just less time in airports.

To me, travel is about new experiences not just going overseas. I’m grateful to have explored more of my local surroundings this year.

It links with the point of strengthening some connections and dissolving others too. It was inspiring to see other people making the most of local adventures this year and it definitely strengthened those connections.

I will say though, I really feel for people who had saved up and planned a big trip that had to be canceled this year. Particularly young people who would be traveling for the first time. I get why it’d be hard to be grateful for local adventures if you’d planned a big trip.

This post is more from a travel blogging perspective though and the gratitude for being able to share and promote local adventures.

Time to do other things

One thing that the lockdown – and especially the solo lockdowns that I did – will give you is a lot of time to think.

Without the hectic nature of traveling, there was a lot of time to do things that were on the ‘one-day’ list.

And I’m grateful for this time because it’s been really fun and refreshing.

I had tried to grow plants before and always failed horribly because I never had the time to fully invest in it. This year I made a little apartment balcony herb and vegetable garden and they didn’t all die!

It was a fun way to use some of the extra time and rewarding every time I picked the vegetables.

There was also a lot more time for reading, watercolor, and learning things like new cocktails to make.

I’m grateful to have been able to slow down this year and get the opportunity to do more of those things.

Creative challenges

I’m very grateful for this one.

This year was tough to be a travel blogger. All the stats were down, income fizzled up, and there was a big question mark around how to create content at first.

I continued my schedule because I figured the world would be traveling again at some point and I also pivoted to local adventures to still provide some value.

There were a lot of times though, particularly in the strict lockdown phases, that pushed me to think outside the box creatively.

When I couldn’t go further than 200m from my house, I started making funny short videos. It was something I never would’ve done prior because I got used to doing the same old thing.

And you know what? People liked them.

They didn’t go viral or anything but I got something better. I got meaningful DMs from people who said they appreciated the laugh every day amongst the stress of what was going on.

Being able to provide an escape and a laugh during this time is a huge privilege. It came from a challenge but turned out to be something I’m incredibly proud of.

It’s one of the biggest things I’m grateful for in 2020. While the year made everything seem isolated and far away, it brought me closer to others.

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