According to AI, the human brain remembers negative things more than positive things due to:
- Emotional processing
- Survival
- Negative bias
- Evolutionary defense mechanism
- Vividness
- Heightened awareness
This explains a very common comment as a new year arrives – “I’m sure glad that year is over with.”
A lot can happen in 365 days (or 366 days in the case of 2024). Unless you keep a journal that documents the daily rollercoaster, most of what we remember are the bad things that occurred. A primary driver of negative bias is the fact that bad things are memorable because of their impact. A cancer diagnosis, income loss, hurricane damage, the dissolution of a relationship, and any number of other negative events leave an indelible mark on our desire, confidence and even future.
In contrast, the simple fact that you woke up this morning is underappreciated.
I don’t usually craft a new year resolution. They typically are overly ambitious and lead to disappointment. January 1 is a convenient but arbitrary “new” because each day – even moment – brings its own opportunity to reinvent.
However, 2025 is going to be different. Given the things that happened in 2024 to me, my family and my friends, I sometimes lost sight of my blessings. As the year evolved, it became easier to focus on the compounding negatives instead of the overall positive because the negatives were big and the positives were voluminous but small. However, I do not believe in coincidences. What happened in 2024 has prepared me for whatever good and bad surprises 2025 has in store.
So, in 2025, I commit to a “glass half full” approach to life.
I will purposefully celebrate the positive and privately journal it for encouragement when the negative inevitably happens. I will be a beacon of positivity and a model of resilience in the midst of negativity. My new year resolution is not a specific task list, prone to abandonment, but a philosophical attitude towards life.
I’m taking the advice of the renowned philosopher Bobby McFerrin … “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
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Very interesting idea, thanks for sharing.