Sharul Channa, Sabrina Ho and Tan Su-Lyn share their hopes for 2021

Sharul Channa, comedian

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I’m looking forward to performing for an actual audience in an auditorium, even if it’s with social distancing measures and masks on! Although performing on Zoom has opened up endless opportunities, nothing compares to having a live audience laugh at your jokes in an auditorium.

I also hope to travel soon, though that might still be a distant dream. I hope people will continue to invest in themselves as they did during the lockdown. It was refreshing to see people picking up new skills, taking up courses online, cooking, dancing, making videos, and generally upskilling for a more wholesome and meaningful life. I took up private pole-dancing and Kathak (Indian classical) dance classes during Covid-19, and wish to continue learning and perfecting these dances.

Going into 2021, I will continue to meet smaller groups of people when hanging out so that we can have meaningful conversations. I’d continue to make Instagram and Tiktok videos that entertain. Lastly, I wish I can continue my WFH habit of taking naps!

Sabrina Ho, founder & CEO of Half the Sky

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Let’s face it – 2020 hasn’t been a year that many of us will look back fondly on. For me, my biggest hope is that 2021 will be less eventful than 2020. I’m most looking forward to safely travelling again, so I can see my family in Hong Kong whom I deeply miss. I’m also looking forward to carrying forward the lessons I’ve learnt this year – the most important being not to take life for granted. If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that we must cherish life and have a greater appreciation of nature.

On a personal level, I hope I can maintain my new-found love for meditation in 2021. It has really helped me keep my balance despite the chaos surrounding us.

On a wider societal level, I’m hoping we all start working together to solve the many problems that plague humanity. This pandemic has been an eye-opener to the deep and growing inequality around the world. Hopefully, with Singapore managing Covid-19 well, and more economies around the world opening up, it will enable the job market to stabilise, and we will see the development of new career opportunities. But we also have to be prepared as the job market will most likely be challenging over the next one to two years.

As a talent solutions expert, my advice to women is to use this time to upskill and reskill – I can say with a high degree of confidence that the new normal of work will be here to stay (ie remote work, virtual work, and a greater need for digital skills). This new normal will likely transform the way work will get done, and the types of jobs that will be available in the coming years. So, to all my sisters out there, take this opportunity to upskill yourself so that you will be able to seize new opportunities in 2021 and beyond.

Tan Su-Lyn, CEO of The ATE Group

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2020 was unprecedented in terms of the curveballs it has slammed into our faces on many fronts. However, it has taught me to reassess my priorities. It has also taught me to be more efficient at learning and adapting to evolving situations.

In 2021, I hope that we will remember to turn to one another with empathy and kindness in our hearts, rather than with impatience and anger. I also wish for greater balance in my life and the lives of others. I am happy to work hard, but I do aim to play a greater part in the lives of my children, too.

I look forward to enforcing days of rest and regeneration for myself. As an entrepreneur as well as a mother of three, I have found myself constantly burning the candle at both ends. 2020 has taught me that this is unsustainable. I hope to find a way to achieve some form of balance on this front – to get enough sleep, to be more present, to take on less but achieve more.

My advice to anyone feeling overwhelmed: be kind to yourself. Accept the things that are beyond your control. Ask for and accept help. Learn to place fewer things on your plate. Stop comparing your life to the lives of others. But most of all, be kind to yourself.

On the work front, I look forward to building more long-term brand communications strategies with our clients at The Ate Group. They have grown to value owned content as a legitimate lead generator for their businesses. This is something they've come to realise as consumer habits have changed post-circuit breaker. Brands that maintain direct and sustained communication with their audiences have a greater chance of retaining them. Strategy and content work speak to my formal training, and I also believe this is where the agency stands to contribute most to the businesses we work with.

This article first appeared in the January 2021 issue of Her World.