This past year has been difficult. Okay, maybe that's an understatement. This past year was definitely the most difficult of many of our lives, what with the uncertainty, and confusion, and home confinement, and remote schooling, and lack of social interaction, etc. etc. etc. It would be easy, at the end of a year like this, to only focus on the difficult or bad parts.
But whenever I'm confronted with a situation that seems overwhelmingly bad (whether in business or in my personal life,) I remember something a dear friend of mine once told me at a particularly low point in my life.
This friend, who is a veteran and served in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan, struggles with many of the same anxiety and depression issues I do, along with PTSD from his time at war. When he returned from his last deployment, it was not easy for him to integrate back into civilian life with his family and he found himself relentlessly focused on negative thoughts and situations. He said the only time he found relief was when he finally did what his therapist called "hunting the good stuff."
What hunting the good stuff means is looking, in all situations, for the positive. Finding whatever gems of goodness you can in the dirt pile that life sometimes hands us. And this is not some new-agey woo-woo stuff that you'd hear on a yoga mat. This is a combat veteran, working to focus on the positivity that still surrounds all of us, even in the most difficult situations. If he can do it, I certainly can. And so can you.
So, as you wrap up 2020, that's my challenge for you, dear reader. Whether you are a business owner or a stay-at-home parent, an employee or someone searching for a job, take some time to re-frame your picture of 2020. Take 30 quiet minutes and write down all the GOOD things that happened this year. Even the little stuff, like you finally had time to clean out the gutters since you couldn't take a summer vacation, etc. Good things did happen this year. Taking the time to catalog them allows you to move into the new year with a sense of optimism, instead of dread.
Comentarios