Negativity Bias and Yearly Timelines

As one of those really annoying facts of life, people find it easier to focus on the bad things. Positivity and hope take constant hard work, maintenance and attention. The negative things are just there, whether we want them or not. 
Apparently it's called Negativity Bias, and it is true to all human beings. 
And it kind of sucks. 

But just so I can add to the fun, (and say that I'm not like everybody else), I also tend to forget what I've done. Whenever someone asks me the very nice and caring question of "so what did you do in the last day / week / month / year?" I usually forget everything that happened and everything I've done, and I end up saying I did nothing of value, nothing good happened, and I mostly spent my days sitting on my chair, in front of my computer, looking for funny memes I can send the kids so they won't think I am completely out of touch with today's youth. 

And on top of everything, it really was one of "those" years, which makes it even harder, and the same time much more important, to find the good things and cling to them. 

Well, what time of the year is better to do that than now? Yes, I know "not now" is the only right answer here, but it is end of November, a great time for some Pre-Christmas soul searching and Pre-New-Year planning. Or at least that's what I am telling everyone who would listen. 

And though I am usually very much a do-as-I-say and not as-I-do person, I've decided to actually follow my own advice and have a look at 2022, not from a what-a-horrible-year-it-was, but from a "what did I achieve" point of view (we call it "in the eye of a buyer" which sounds better in Hebrew, but just means in a state of mind of someone looking to close the deal not someone looking to blow it up). 

Of course I had to make a project out of it, going over all the calendars, photos, emails, and lists from the year, integrating it into our company Airtable, and finding a way to do everything visually nicely.
Because really, if I can make life harder for myself, why wouldn't I want to?

Looking back is a funny thing. I am usually not a fan, but forcing myself to look for all the achievements, firsts, and fun bits, reminded me that it is all about where we put our focus and the story we tell ourselves (and those around us).
It also reminded me that it is important sometimes to stop and appreciate. We tend to be so focused on the here & now, the work we still need to do, the clients that are waiting, the results we need to deliver right now, and we forget to stop. And look back to where we started from and how far we've come. 

Having said all that though, and being me, I looked at our timeline and all I said to Hidai was that even now I have no idea if what we've done this year is considered a lot or not enough, but it's definitely not been a boring year.