Why a Look-Back to Last Year Can Be Helpful

Today we'll look back and compare what was going on a year ago to now. Our purpose is simply to see if we can benefit from the perspective of a one-year look-back.

I do this sort of looking back from time to time in my business. You know, you look at revenues, expenses year to date and compare to last year. You might even look back farther into the past. But our bookkeeping reports typically default to a year.

People in my profession typically look back at the economy and various markets. Sometimes this can provide perspective and insight into what's happening now. Sometimes not so much. Right now, for example, we have to be careful looking back to last year. Things were so down last year that any comparison with now will naturally show a huge increase in activity. But what does it tell us if we know that last year economic activity was in the dumpster vs. today? Of course the economy is better. But better than nothing? Again, how is that helpful?

Looking back can be helpful in our spiritual life as well. For example, let's say you're a bit frustrated over what you perceive to be a lack of progress in your spiritual life. If you look back a year - or more - you might find you've actually taken a few steps in a positive direction. Are you closer to God than you were a year or more ago? Can you see how you might have taken a stride or two towards Heaven? 

Examination of conscience lends a hand here. If we regularly assess things on a daily basis, it may not provide much perspective. After all, how different are your examinations from day to day? But the habit of checking in with the state of your soul each day will reveal certain habits or patterns. And maybe, thinking back, you'll find that that fault or sin you've been working on for what seems like forever, doesn't pop up as much in your examination as it once did.

(One caveat: While checking back can be helpful as a general practice, don't get bogged down with this. You'll potentially subject yourself to over-analyzing things while life passes you by.)

So with this as background, We'll take a look at what was happening a year ago. Here's what we noted then:

For the first few months of the "lockdown," no matter what you do for a living (if you still have a job), you likely spent a fair amount of time simply assuring that your family had food and other grocery items. We cycled through various methods: Waiting on line to get into the supermarket; trying to get time slots for delivery services. Then there was all the time taken in "disinfecting" everything you bought.

Add in disinfecting mail and other home deliveries of items we ordered online.

Include the time spent making sure our loved ones were OK, especially elderly loved ones.

We've all been through this. And it took up - and likely still takes up - a considerable amount of time, eating into our work schedule.

I find this helpful. For one thing, most of this has disappeared. While some household supplies - especially building materials - remain hard to get, most things we rely on for our daily existence are more or less available. Of course, some of them (anyone use gas in their car?) have gotten pricey, at least they can be found. As for loved ones, without ignoring the possibility that a variant of the virus may spread, and that some folks may get sick, the sheer numbers of sick folks has declined drastically. 

(Of course, as we noted last week, concern over the jab may be replacing concern with the virus - but let's set that aside for now.)

As for disinfecting, I don't now about you, but we're not obsessively wiping things down anymore. Normal cleanliness and hygiene yes; constant scrubbing and hand-sanitizing - not so much.

All of which lessens the distractions and time-sucks that impinged on our work last year. (Again, with some new additions from jab concerns, a la last week's posts.)

Building on a discussion of how to stay strong in the face of last year's challenges, we also noted:

Our discussion about staying strong recognized the physical drain these activities entailed. Ideally, you're building strength and endurance that bolsters your mental, emotional, and spiritual life. Without that strength, work would be waylaid as exhaustion sets in. But without discipline, you'll use up that strength and endurance by engaging in too much wheel-spinning.

As you can see, we recognized the need for discipline in our daily work. Not that we're not always trying to be disciplined, of course; but in the face of last year's onslaught, discipline had to take primacy of place. And to the extent that we countered our challenges with increased focus on discipline, that effort may have stuck in place. If so, we all benefited - at least in that way - from the Mess we had to deal with.

We'll stick with this theme when we come back next time...