Mark Stoller moved to Falcon in 2007.†He and his wife, Andra, both U.S. Air Force veterans, enjoy life with their daughters, extended family and adopted rescue dogs in Latigo. Mark savors the privilege of his wife and daughters being his muse for topics, people to meet and places to investigate.
We met 2020 with the same excitement and expectations as that of a new relationship.High hopes were dashed early as we marked the squares on our 2020 BINGO card: Global Pandemic, Earthquake, Hurricane, Raging Wildfires, Murder Hornets, Moral Decay and Political Upheaval, to name a few.Asteroid Impact, Alien Invasion and Zombie Apocalypse are still open Ö just saying.As with any bad relationship, it is time to break up with 2020 and move on with high hopes again for 2021.For me, 2020 had its share of loss: In January, I said goodbye to my dog, Wrangler, and our daughterís dog, Harmony; in August, one of my chickens unexpectedly passed; and two young mothers we know, Elizabeth and Brandi, were lost to illness compounded by COVID-19.I found sage counsel to move on from 2020 in Carla Loweís article titled, ìHow to Move On: 10 Steps For Closure After You Break Up.îHer top-level advice spans topics such as acceptance of the situation; distancing yourself by not thinking/talking/blaming; learn from it; focus on yourself; get out there; and take it slow.Taking the advice from above, this is the last mention of 2020 and no blame is assigned.I did learn, this year, I am afraid of losing someone or experiencing my own death without saying goodbye. Thus, I have been far more vocal in expressing my feelings to my family and friends.Now, to lighten the mood. I have written previously of my sister-in-law, Stephanie, and her gift to us of a Gratitude Jar.We keep our family calendar online, which makes it easy to review the yearís events. I will backtrack through each month to identify all the good times and events.Each event will be a note in the Gratitude Jar as a visible reminder of the good memories to cherish.Next, I plan to clean out/eliminate the digital distractions in my life. There are too many advertisements and mailing list emails accumulating again in my email queue.After unsubscribing from them, I am going to assess and validate the usefulness of my social media accounts.Take time to watch ìSocial Dilemmaî on Netflix. We are being socially engineered by the technical giants ñ- Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. The manipulation of human behavior for profit is coded into social media by these companies.Beyond the ethics of manipulative designed algorithms, I know I could be far more productive. The moment has come to stop wasting time staring at the display of an endless trove of photos, videos and advertisements.I also do not care for the demonstrated, blatant, biased censorship on those platforms. Even when answering to Congress, Twitter and Facebook CEOs were smug, unashamed and unapologetic for their companyís activities. I will be one less account on their servers going forward.Now, having cleaned the slate, it is time to focus on myself and find new ways to grow.A retired Navy SEAL, Jocko Willink, is a firm believer in asking ourselves three questions ó to which we must answer with brutal honesty:Who are you? What do you want to be? What are you doing to get yourself there?Another Navy SEAL, David Goggins, stated, ìYou have to understand what motivates you. Establish your purpose by defining why you are here. Set specific goals. Make a plan to achieve them.î And so I shall.To close out this year, I would like to thank you for following my column. Some of my topics may not resonate with you, yet you remain loyal and continue to read each month. I greatly appreciate you.From my home to yours, ìHave a merry Christmas and a happy new year!î
