How can I have a more positive year for 2026?

[Markness]

I really hoped 2025 was going to be a better year than 2024 was but I once again had to go through disappointments and losses. I feel like I have multiple injuries or infections but I can’t afford the treatments for them and the maladies just persist. How can I have a more positive and productive coming year?

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Markness - - - Find your people. One does not decide to bag a moose and go hunting in Saudi Arabia. What opened my life up was involvement with outdoor enthusiasts; my people.

 

[velociraptor]

I really hoped 2025 was going to be a better year than 2024 was but I once again had to go through disappointments and losses. I feel like I have multiple injuries or infections but I can’t afford the treatments for them and the maladies just persist. How can I have a more positive and productive coming year?

Set small, achievable goals. Work on one at a time. When you succeed, note it in a journal and move to the next one.

 

[Metalhead]

Move to Puyallup and go to metal shows with Metalhead.

 

[Wizardry]

What would a more positive and productive year look like to you?

 

[lunarious]

Find your people. It will be scary. But originally before reading @Gerald Wilgus I wanted to say challenge yourself and expand your comfort zone

Spoiler: Misunderstanding about Honor

People say "get out of or surrender your comfort zone", or leave your past behind. But that is only if you don't need Honor. Seeking new/old people and new/old things is seeking Honor. Honor IMHO is power and allies. Getting friends expands your Comfort Zone and it'll get easier to relax. ... I don't have friends mostly because people mostly don't offer Power/Kindness. But then i must look for such people.

Expanding your CZ might be learning one word pr. day or going to a course.

Use your youth before you lose

 

[AuAL]

@Markness, can I suggest you try to have a more positive day tomorrow than today? Look for the little things you can do and achieve. Make note of them in your own, little Gratitude Garden. At the end of the year, read it and see how far you may have managed to come. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was - one day, and then the next day, and then the next…

 

[Poppy98]

How can I have a more positive and productive coming year?

Social skills-wise?

I have found that telling people the reason for your question before your question and learning about boundaries has helped me communicate with (usually) far fewer headaches.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Random acts of kindness.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Find your people. It will be scary. But originally before reading @Gerald Wilgus I wanted to say challenge yourself and expand your comfort zone

Spoiler: Misunderstanding about Honor

People say "get out of or surrender your comfort zone", or leave your past behind. But that is only if you don't need Honor. Seeking new/old people and new/old things is seeking Honor. Honor IMHO is power and allies. Getting friends expands your Comfort Zone and it'll get easier to relax. ... I don't have friends mostly because people mostly don't offer Power/Kindness. But then i must look for such people.

Expanding your CZ might be learning one word pr. day or going to a course.

Use your youth before you lose

When you find your people, it will feel safe. When you’re around your people, connection has room to grow without forcing it. So choose well, based upon who you are.

Some environments reward fast talk, ambiguity, and surface charisma. If those aren’t your strengths, staying there too long can convince you there’s something wrong with you — when there isn’t.

Right places teach relational skills. I didn’t learn connection by chasing dates. I learned it by doing things with people, side by side, until trust had time to form. For me it was outings groups and there I met my spouse.

 

[Markness]

The year didn’t exactly start off the best with my grandmother passing away. But a part of me feels like my grandmother would want me to keep going.

 

[JayLapointe]

@Markness, can I suggest you try to have a more positive day tomorrow than today? Look for the little things you can do and achieve. Make note of them in your own, little Gratitude Garden. At the end of the year, read it and see how far you may have managed to come. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was - one day, and then the next day, and then the next…

I would like to second the idea of journaling or noting down a couple things each day you are grateful for. Come join us over on the Gratitude Garden thread. Studies in the field of Positive Psychology show that you can actually rewire your brain to have a more positive outlook. A simple exercise like writing down 3 things you are grateful for each day will start to change your outlook in a few weeks. You'll actually start seeing more positives in your day and less negatives. It's not that any less bad stuff happens, just your brain becomes less focused on looking for and dwelling on them. In the end positivity is a choice that doesn't mean everything is sunshine and roses. It just means that when it is something that is beyond your ability to change, you acknowledge it and move forward instead of dwelling on it.

Today already I'm 1) grateful to have gotten a wonderful and restful nights sleep, 2) grateful that while an accident at work happened, we found out today that we won't be fined and our solution to prevent the incident again is being adopted province wide. 3) Grateful that I've already met a few new people today on this board and I'm very pleased to be among like minded folks.