2016 Stunk

Happy New Year!!! And a big “good riddance” to 2016. Some people had an amazing 2016, and I’m very happy for you. You can skim over the first part. For the rest of us, 2016 was a disappointing and stressful year, to say the least.

• Terror and extremists continue to ruin lives and destroy entire countries.
• We lost many great people, often way too early.
• Despite whether you were happy with the outcome of the elections, this was the ugliest and most spiteful campaign season we’ve ever had. You know how far we’ve sunk when Kanye thinks he should be president.
• I was reminded again how much damage bad management can do to teams and an organization.

The end of the year left many people I spoke with in fear for the future. Companies seemed to put the brakes on 2017 plans until they could figure out how the election would affect them. Individuals crashed the Canadian immigration site and made “how to move to Canada” the top search. The pattern I continued to see and would like to talk about here is our reaction to fear.

Fear was being treated as fact. People had extrapolated the future out of this fear, and already started forming plans before anything real had materialized. I’m a big proponent of being prepared, but it’s counterproductive when your actions don’t match the real circumstances. In times of great uncertainty, we need to focus on plans and options, not rush reactions that could be detrimental to our futures.

The problem is bigger than just how we deal with turbulent events. Travis Bradberry wrote an excellent article “How complaining rewires your brain for negativity”. Travis describes how research has shown that our brains take complaining and negative thought and become rewired to view the world in that way. In short, if you look for the bad, you will always find it. I’m not suggesting we put on our Pollyanna glasses, but we need to focus more of our time and energy on acknowledging the positive in our lives. Instead of remorse when things get bad, think how you can make it better. With this outlook, maybe 2016 wasn’t as bad as it feels.

• Although we lost amazing artists, we have a body of work we can enjoy anytime we want.
• Even if you hate Trump, we’ve survived far worse presidents.
• We took huge steps toward marriage equality and civil rights.
• After a horrible attack at the Istanbul airport, many lives were saved due to fast action, and the airport was fully operational less than 12 hours later.
• We stopped an Ebola epidemic and now may have a vaccine.
• Manatees, humpback whales, and pandas were removed from the endangered species list.
• World hunger reached its lowest point in 25 years.
• You arrived in 2017 full of new possibilities.

It’s OK to have fear and mourn loss. When faced with challenges, take time to acknowledge the good and focus on how to make things better. If you are going to train your brain, why not train it to see the beauty and wonder around us?

Best wishes for a truly better 2017.