1st July 2021, this marks the end of the first half (H1) of Year 2021 and the start of the second half (H2) of Year 2021. The first half of Year 2021 had been mixed for me, taking this day to give myself some me time, reflecting H1 2021 and new themes for personal and business in H2 2021 while reviewing the themes that I set earlier in January 2021 for my Themes and Goals for Year 2021 (Technology and Personal).
Reflecting H1 2021
H1 2021 had been mixed for me, while we were still battling the ongoing global pandemic COVID-19 at the start, I was cautiously optimistic that we can slowly start our route to recovery. Q1 2021 seemed to be heading that way, I was working towards my 15 years milestone for my photography and travel portal/blog in April 2021, with my business expansion and diversification plans put in place.
However, at the later part of Q2 2021, the ongoing global pandemic situation took a turn for the worse, resulting in tightening measures being put in place, that was known as Phase 2 Heightened Alert (P2HA) in May 2021. While it wasn’t exactly a circuit breaker (CB) like the one we had in 2020, P2HA was close to being a circuit breaker in action on the ground level.
During that trying and difficult period, business plans were derailed, the economy and market started to slow down. There were other very personal situations that came into the picture, I was overwhelmed mentally and emotionally, I thought that after going through the CB period in 2020, I am better prepared mentally and emotionally. However, this wasn’t the case at all.
I wrote about it, “Reflection, Thoughts and Feelings – 1st June 2021” and “Fate and Time”, thinking that I would be feeling better after that. However, it took a twist and turn, I spiralled down further to a level that I called, “A Tipping Point”. If it wasn’t for friends such as Chef Keith who took me out and away on that Monday 7th June 2021, I won’t know how far I might have spiralled down that day.
The 4 weeks from the start of P2HA was a very tough test for me emotionally and mentally, a rare few people would know what was actually going through my mental and emotional state of mind. Alarms and warning signs were triggered, friends started to ask about me. There were some matters that I could say, there were some very personal matters that I can’t say out on social media, only in very private and very personal settings.
Climbing out from this even deeper rock bottom, depressed in a rut, was so much tougher than I envisioned it that I was able to handle them. The recovery took a bit more time than usual, along with reflecting H1 2021 and planning for H2 2021, this recovery started to phase in nicely with my route to recovery. The recovery is not immediate, it’s not fast at all, the key thing is recovery has started.
Mental Health Matters
I would be the first to acknowledge that I was feeling depressed and stuck in a rut at that time. The massive economic impacts, social and emotional impacts caused by this ongoing global pandemic cannot be underestimated.
If it wasn’t for friends like Chef Keith, old primary school friends like Wendy and Michael, photographer friends Ryan and Isaac, and my cousin-in-law Tiffany, they all helped to pull me out from this recent depression and rut.
Mental health matters, it’s time we acknowledge it to be a health issue and look into how we can manage and handle it, on a personal, professional and medical (if need to be) basis. This ongoing global pandemic COVID-19 situation accelerates the impacts, seriousness and fallouts on mental health issues.
New Themes for Personal and Business in H2 2021
My themes for Year 2021 were “Recovery” and “Rejuvenation”, I decided to review them, and my themes for H2 2021 would be:
Care
This comes to a point in time whereby I need to learn to take care of myself more, this does’t mean that I am going to be a selfish person down the road. Maybe I care too much for others and other things that I forgot to take care of myself.
Recovery
Recovering from my depressed emotional and mental state of health and mind. It’s a critical time that I start to recover, in order for me to take on the current ongoing battles and challenges in a better frame of mind, mental and emotional state of well-being.
H2 2021 – Other Business Interests and Personal Interests
This is still going to be a difficult and trying period especially for small and medium sized businesses as we are still battling this ongoing global pandemic.
I am upgrading/learning/working on adding digital marketing specialist diploma to my qualifications, fully transforming into my TGH Digital Studio business setup consisting of my TGH Photography, videography and content creation.
Other digital marketing/social media marketing plans/discussions are taking place, a work in progress.
As for other business interests/collaborations/plans, there are some discussions in progress, planning and strategising. Let’s see if they can be materialised and turn into something feasible and workable.
In Short
H1 2021 had been a mixed of ups and deep downs for me, Q1 2021 wasn’t too bad, Q2 pretty much went diving straight down. I was depressed, in a rut. However, thanks to a few friends, I managed to pull out and started the road to recovery.
I was taught a number of life lessons in the past few months, they will definitely serve me well in the future as we gradually recover from this global pandemic situation and start to rebuild a new normal of life and new future of work in a post COVID-19 world.