A Positive Attitude is a Life Changer

View the new year as a grand opportunity

Your expectations will likely determine how the future greets you. (Biba Kayewich)

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Radio.”

“Radio who?”

“Radio or not, it’s a new year.”

Ah, I can hear the groans coming right out of my keyboard.

But there’s a bit of truth in that joke. Ready or not, like it or not, the new year is indeed here. Some celebrants have watched the Times Square ball sink on television, raised a glass of champagne, kissed their sweetheart, stumbled through “Auld Lang Syne,” and posted a list of resolutions on the fridge. Old Father Time has hobbled from the stage, and Baby New Year is tipping his top hat and raring to go.

A Year Lived

Slipping into the new year makes the lucky ones feel like high school graduates in their caps and gowns, full of high hopes and high spirits and ready to take on the world. The year gone by brought triumphs, major and minor—promotions at work, romance, maybe a marriage, or a new member of the family—and all signs point to an even brighter future.

On the other hand, for some of you, 2022 was uphill all the way. At its worst, the hours and days hung on you like weights, getting out of bed was an act of will, and the line of that old “Hee-Haw” song—“If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all”—was your watchword. Defeat dogged your heels: jobs lost, a marriage on the rocks, or financial decisions that drained your bank account like water going down the kitchen sink.

If you’ve had a year like that, you’ve probably heard or read enough bromides to last a lifetime, well-meaning advice that helped you stagger forward day-to-day but could never burn away the storm clouds overhead. “Things will look better in the morning,” “Love is hard work,” and “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” are band-aids, not cures for what ails you.

Take Charge

But this flip of the calendar into another year, symbolic of new beginnings, is made for second chances. A lot of people are looking ahead with great expectations, and you have the same opportunity, no matter what punches you took in 2022.

You can start by treating yourself as a sole proprietorship and doing what so many businesses do this time of year: Take an inventory of your stock and draw up a balance sheet of your assets and liabilities. To be effective, that appraisal must be unflinchingly honest. Unhappy with her workplace, a writer and editor I know recently resigned from her position and spent a month reassessing her talents and ambitions. Another woman, whose husband died after a long illness, took stock of her situation and decided to return to the workforce, both for the extra money and as a means of occupying her spare time. Both women faced difficulties and decisions, but they mapped out plans for their futures based on a solid self-evaluation.

Once you’ve done the same, it’s time to consider your expectations for that most valuable of your commodities: yourself. In “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change,” Stephen R. Covey wrote: “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

Have you applied that same formula to yourself? Do you treat yourself as you are or as you can and should be?

We’ve all heard the proverb, “Hope for the best, but expect the worse.” That’s sound advice. We should be mentally prepared if our plans take a sudden nose-dive. But too many people leave hope out of the picture and simply expect the worse. That’s a mistake. Your expectations will likely determine how the future greets you.

This new year belongs to you as much as it does to anyone else. Make it yours, and see what you can become.