2021 - The Best Year Ever!

2021 will be the best year in our lives. It stands to reason because 2020 is the worst year in our lives.

Unexpected Parties are the Best
FOMO - the greatest pedestal for disappointment. How many parties have you been to, expecting to find the greatest party on the planet, only to find another lame one. Especially as a kid, you have to go to this party because everyone else is there and it’s going to be the biggest thing of the year, but then it sucked. How many parties, gigs, events, have you been to with no expectations, and then come away with some of the greatest memories of your life? After the misery that is 2020, most of us are going into 2021, hopeful yes, expectant, I doubt it. Most of us are in some form of lockdown, Christmas cancelled, missing friends and family. You are thankfully still employed but your annual ski trip has been cancelled. You’re not booking your next holiday yet and if you like going on a cruise then good luck planning that anytime soon. However, all these things will happen next year (and I’m not just saying that because I’ve bought cruiseliner stock). I’m looking forward to going snowboarding next year and making my yearly trip to an Italian city (or two). I don’t know when I’m going to book it, but with the vaccine now being rolled out, it will happen soon. And when it does, boy am I going to let my hair down.

Economic Bounceback - Better than a Dead Cat Bounce!
Yes we have had a few false starts. It’s like trying to watch a movie before you have finished downloading it and you keep hitting the downloaded limit because you’re watching it quicker than the download speed. We miss our normal lives, spending money, socialising. Just look at Amazon and Zoom stock if you don’t believe me. Once the download speed is faster than we can watch, people are going to party like it’s 1999 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblt2EtFfC4). Everyday will be a celebration! People will just be happy to be out, everyone will just be that little bit nicer feeling that freedom that has finally arrived. 

To make us all feel better there will be deals everywhere, shops will be desperate to stop you doing all your shopping online. There will be last year's colours and cuts to sell off, those designer shoes that never left the factory. Compulsive buying disorder is never greater than when you are walking around a store with all that temptation on show. 

The biggest difference between this recession and the last one, is that if you have kept your job, the money is still there to be spent (whereas last time the value of money halved or worse). Being in lockdown with very few shops open has led to a lot of people saving. People will spend this money on clothes, cars, and holidays, giving the economy a big jolt. People need to let loose, and they will in a big way as soon as they can.

Forced Progress
No one wanted or really anticipated Covid, but look at the innovation it has caused.

We have made significant progress with medicine. Never in the history of mankind have we created a vaccine as quickly as the multiple Covid vaccines. We’ve progressed mRNA vaccines quicker than we ever would have without Covid.

Remote working, while it has long been a thing, it has finally found its place. From large companies that paid lip service to it, who had their hand forced and didn’t go under (although I’m sure some micromanagers have gone stir crazy), to the employees who said they would work from home every day if they could, only to find that in practice it drives them crazy and they can’t wait to see the office again. 

People have learnt how to cut hair (with mixed results). People have survived without manis and pedis and people have learnt how to keep fit without the gym. People have learnt how to school their children and work at the same time, and people have learnt their neighbours name and what they need buying from the shops. 

Things will be different on the other side, but they will be different because we want them to be. We will still travel to meetings and have business trips but we’ll do them when we think they are needed, not because it is normal. Yes we will still meet our families at Christmas but Zooming with relatives we can’t see will no longer be something unusual. Companies will still work in offices but flexible working and hotdesking will become the norm. We will take what we have learnt and it will compliment our world, not replace it.

The Rising Sun
We’re close on this one now. There are multiple vaccines being rolled out and there are green shoots to give us hope. I know it sucks that Christmas and New Year are going to be the biggest disappointments we’ve ever had in our lifetimes but the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and what a dawn it is going to be!