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OP-ED: Start the new year with optimism

By Nick Jacobs 4 min read

It is a new year, and with that comes every level of challenge, every range of consternation, and absolutely all types of what-ifs. We all know what it is like to get on that scale on Jan. 1, when we hear that little voice emitting from our amygdala that says, “Will one of you please step off?”

We have all gotten those phone calls with good, medium, and horribly bad news coming from the caller. We have all dodged and in some cases been the recipient of someone else’s shots fired. The only thing we have that can get us through these rough patches is optimism.

How is it possible that something so simple can make or break our day? Each morning when we get up, we make choices. We choose to be happy, or we choose to be sad. We choose to be angry, or we choose to be optimistic.

One of my former coworkers was an emergency room doctor and anytime I got completely stressed out, he would look at me and say, “Nobody died today, Nick.” Yes, that was optimistic on his part because I am sure people were dying. He just meant that, no matter how stressful things seemed, nobody that we were dealing with administratively had died because of our decisions that day.

That put it all in perspective for me because, if you had a job where you normally dealt with life and death matters on every decision you made, my decisions were surely less important that day.

I kept a daily journal when I was running the Hospital and Research Institute. Years later, I would randomly pull one of those journals from my bookcase, open it to any page, and say, “Why the heck was I so upset about that?” You see, it is all relative, isn’t it?

When we were teenagers, we thought the world revolved around us and everyone noticed everything that we did. When we became adults, we realized there were about 8 billion people out there, and it is up to us to make it work. But another great physician friend of mine once said that you can either do this with joy and optimism, or you can do it with your fists clutched, angry, resentful, and fearful. Once again, that is your choice each and every day. We either act out of love or we act out of fear. Please try hard to select the right one.

What is the worst thing you can do? Surround yourself with negative, mean, narcissistic losers who only want you to fail so they look better and feel better about themselves.

There’s one short way to navigate this all without losing it, and that is to work really hard to surround yourself with positive people, with people who care about you, who understand what you’re trying to do, who get you, and who will do whatever it takes to make sure they help you make it work. So, there you have it.

You see every day you have choices. Yes, of course, some choices are much harder than others, but indecision is also the ruination of progress.

Look in the mirror and say to yourself, “It’s gonna be OK.” Whatever it is that’s driving you crazy, remember that this too shall pass. Force yourself to look on the sunny side and the bright side. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and never mess with mister in between.

Remember, there is no dress rehearsal. We only get to do this once, so we might as well make the best of it and try like heck to enjoy every day as much as possible. Do not let people steal your happiness. It belongs to you. Most importantly, do not allow yourself to wallow in self-pity. Always forgive yourself.

Oh, yeah, and for goodness sake, have an incredibly happy new year.

Nick Jacobs is a Windber resident.

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