The Mulligan Shot: 2021’s Sticky First Week

The BOLD (Take a Mulligan)

At first, I thought it was just me. Then I had some conversations—with clients, with colleagues, with friends—and apparently many of us have had a very sticky first 12 days of 2021.

The good news is that new start can have a new start. We can still rock 2021.  Even if the large scale commercial trash receptacle is still a bit illuminated with flame.   Don’t let this false start year stop you.  

You can take a mulligan!

Life is dreamed in big leaps and revealed in small steps.

Jon Acuff

The Whisper (Like a Boss)

You probably know this but just in case you don’t, there is a tradition in golf that if your first shot is bad you are allowed to pretend it never happened and take a mulligan, a second shot.  

Why am I bringing this up right now?  Well, let me tell you about the first week of 2021.  Wait, what’s that?  You were there?  Good. Then you know why I’m talking about a mulligan.

For many of us, the first week of 2021 was a sticky, molasses-y sort of mess.  

I heard from many people that they expected to hit the ground running after a restful end of the year holiday season and start to crush this bright new year.  

I also heard that for many people that they had a lot of trouble getting their brain in focus, their act together, and their crushing started.

There are several reasons that this might have been the case.  Let’s explore some factors for New Year malaise:

• The Dumpster Is Still On Fire:  There was a lot of hype around this new year. Of course, we were eager to see 2020 in the rearview mirror.  I gently and respectfully remind you that we were saying the same thing about 2019.  When we woke up on January 1, it wasn’t as miraculously new as we’d hoped, and for many of us, that created a bit of a false start.
• An Introspective End to 2020:  Most of our holiday traditions were at least amended if not interrupted.  That means that we were given lots and lots of time with our own thoughts.  For many, the experiences of this year have occasioned a season of soul searching for lessons learned.  That is good.  It may also have been tiring.  
• Relaunch Takes a Lot of Energy.  We often underestimate how long it will take to get back to work.  We come back from vacation at 9:00 pm on a Sunday and expect to be fresh on Monday at 7:00 am.  It pretty much doesn’t work that way.  
• Big Dreams Meet Monday Meetings: As the Jon Acuff quote above states, it can be jarring to go from our dreaming about what we will do this year to the mundane, runway level daily grind of executing on those dreams. It takes focus to keep those big picture plans in front of your eyes when the sink is full of dishes.

We can give ourselves a mulligan for the first week if we need one.  Any time we don’t begin to perform the way we would like, the way we think we ought, we can stop and reset.

A Master’s Second Try

I was privileged to witness Yo-Yo Ma perform with the Baltimore Symphony many years ago.  It was a stunning concert.  

After the symphony concert, he adjourned across the street with 7 of the string players to a jazz club called Ethel’s Place.  I was also privileged to follow them there.  In that small, intimate setting, they gathered in a semi-circle in front of an audience that couldn’t have been more than 30 people. 

They began to play Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-Flat Major.  As the warm tones filled the room, the goosebumps raised on my arms. 

Suddenly, the music stopped.  Abruptly, the tattered ends of the different strains of the music dwindling to a shocked silence.  Yo-Yo Ma had called it.  He had stopped them all. 

He murmured an apology, briefly explained that it wasn’t quite right, and gazed at each of the other players.  There was a ripple of warm laughter. Then, they rallied for a moment.  A few of them closed their eyes. 

Bows raised to strings and there was a top of the hill moment, like sleds poised before a run and then they were racing down into the music together and it was perfect.  Perfect.  

If Yo-Yo Ma can take a mulligan, so can I.  So can you.  If you don’t like the way it is going, start it over.  Goosebumps are good.  Perfection is better.  Go for better