Two years ago, I wrote this column referencing a commercial I had heard talking about how awesome the new year was going to be due to some “great” new movies coming out. Last year, we had a more serious context. We were coming through a year of the worst pandemic the United States has seen in 100 years. This year, we’re still dealing with it although many of us are ready to move on and live with Covid just as we’ve been living with influenza for centuries. The politicians are just as divisive as they were a year ago--wait, maybe more so, after the controversial presidential election of 2020.  Our government wants to force us to be vaccinated and receive booster after booster after booster, failing to recognize the value of natural immunity. The medical and first line responder professions are desperate for workers after firing a good percentage of them for not taking the poke. The employment fate of millions of others hangs in the balance of a supreme court decision to determine whether OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) can force large employers to fire employees not willing to take the vaccine.  Given these conditions, is it possible to have an awesome new year?

People who know me know that I don't use the word "awesome" very often.  While so many others have made it a tired cliché, I use it very rarely to describe only exceptional situations. How could we possibly have an awesome new year with everything that’s happened to us over the past year?

We Have Control of the New Year

Every one of us has total control over whether the New Year will be awesome or not.  The quality of the New Year, indeed, the quality of our lives is determined by the choices we make, not only in how we respond to adversity but in how we choose to move forward. The quality of the new year is also determined by the relationships we develop and the people we help along the way.  There are examples all throughout history of people in every kind of situation who choose triumph over adversity.  From minor inconveniences to major tragedies, it's our choices of how we respond, not our circumstances that control the outcome of our lives.

In the Entrepreneurial Mindset class, featuring the Ice House Entrepreneurship program, we learn that one of the traits common to successful entrepreneurs is this realization that we can choose to control our personal destiny through the choices we make.  We talk about taking time to respond to situations rather than acting immediately in knee-jerk reactions.  Through all kinds of adversity, these entrepreneurs, not only the ones we study in the video interview content, but also the area entrepreneurs we bring in as guests, have chosen to control their outcomes through what we call an internal locus of control.

Positive Thinking Amid Negative Messaging

One of the choices we need to make is to think positively, expecting good things and not bad things to happen.  I know several people who have actually told me they expect the worst things in life.  They get what they expect.  Our society teaches us to expect the worst, once you pay attention to the messages.  The pharmaceutical companies bombard us with messages telling us how sick we are and that we need to go to the doctor to prescribe their medicine for us.  The news media quotes so-called "experts" telling us there's a good chance we'll suffer one kind of calamity or another. A high school teacher told us, in driver’s ed class, that statistically one out of two people would die in an auto crash before the age of 50. He then said, “Look at the person next to you and decide which one of you it’s going to be.” Although he meant no harm, it was a terrible message to present to a class of 13 and 14-year-olds; an example of the subliminally negative messages still pervasive in our society.

Thinking positively doesn't mean we won't ever have a flat tire, but we can choose how we react to the flat tires of life and make decisions to minimize the number of flat tires we'll have. Maybe we also learn that maintenance and care of the things we use every day can minimize the number of flat tires and breakdowns we may have in life.

It will be an awesome New Year if we believe it will be and we make the choices and decisions to make it so.

Information about the next Entrepreneurial Mindset class, starting January 12, can be found at www.fablabicc.org. In this new year, we welcome students and guest entrepreneurs in person, but also offer totally virtual option for the class using what we call “enhanced” Zoom.

Jim Correll can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of Fab Lab ICC or Independence Community College. Archive columns and podcasts at www.fablabicc.org.