Member-only story
What It Means to Choose Positivity in the New Year
As we all ring in 2021, I get the sense that most of us don’t just want the new year to be better — we’re desperate for it to be. Life has been such a craptastic toilet fest through the COVID-19 pandemic that positivity seems like a must just to survive. After all, how much worse could it possibly get? We have to believe that the only way to go from here is up.
Yet, what does choosing positivity really mean?
If you look at negative people, the one thing they all seem to have in common — at least in my experience — is a willingness to believe that they are not the captains of their own ships. They point out what they do not have control of or can’t do, rather than what they can direct or influence.
Positive people, by contrast, generally have a strong sense of their own autonomy. They have a willingness, within that sense of autonomy, to look with purpose for whatever beneficial options, skills or talents they have, and to commit to engaging those options, skills or talents to the best of their ability.
Choosing positivity thus means that you embrace the idea that your hand is on your own rudder, and that you give everything you have to avoid harmful outcomes…