Focus On What You Can Do, Instead Of What You Cannot

The basic idea: I still can't attend a concert, dine in a crowded dynamic restaurant or attend a packed conference. But on Saturday, we got in the car and drove two hours to Bonneville Salt Flats, where we walked across the odd landscape in brilliant sunshine.

Rather than focusing on what we can't do, we took pleasure in what we can.

A bit more background: Of course, this very simple principle is already obvious to you, right? Focus on what you can do. Be positive. Don't struggle with things that are beyond your control.

And yet, so many of us—myself included—struggle with sticking to such simple truths. I'm just telling you about the good day, when the sun came out and the temperatures soared and we escaped towards the Nevada border. I didn't post on the dozens of days this past year when my mood was a bit down and I struggled internally with, "How much longer are we going to be locked up and isolated?"

Did my whining help? Nope.

The principle that guides nearly all my posts is that most people already know the right thing to do, and the biggest challenge of all is to actually do it. So I try to come up with memorable and effective ways to remember what we should be doing, and thus actually do it.

Letting go of our attachment to a wish is pretty high on the list. We are attached to the idea that every year, month, week, and day should be perfect. They should all go according to our preferences, right? Unfortunately, that's not how the world works, and if it did, we would get bored pretty quickly.

Choose the best viable option, and let go of all those that aren't.

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter and coach for entrepreneurs.