Happy New Year 2020!  I’ve waited a few days on my New Year’s resolutions, hiding under a news-free rock, in the vain hope that a miracle would suddenly set the world right, we’d all start thinking and behaving reasonably, politicians would start talking to one another again, and the royal family would be OK.

Didn’t happen.

So I’ve crawled out from under that rock, and I’m surveying the post-CES public speaking scene.  The innovations from CES were as wild as ever.  I particularly liked the individual hydroplane ski-like thing that enables you to pedal on top of the water.  A close second was NextMind, which allows you to control VR using only your brain, so you can finally become a true couch potato and never move again.  And then, of course, along the same lines, everyone noted the robot that delivers toilet paper.

We’re done, clearly.  We’ve got all we need.  We can stop innovating now.

Last year at this time, I predicted that 2019 would be a pretty scary year, and wow was I right.  I don’t take any credit for soothsaying – it was actually a much worse year than I could have possibly imagined.

So what are my public speaker/thought leader resolutions for 2020?

I’m thinking about crawling back under that rock until it’s done.  So far this year I’ve already dealt with crazy weather, mourned shooting victims, and hugged an Australian friend, far from home, who was weeping for his burning country.  2020 is already on a par with 2019 and we haven’t hit Week Three yet.  My resolutions, accordingly, are all about trying to stay sane in an insane landscape.

I’ll focus on the positive.  We can’t personally control the craziness of the world, and so I’m going to pay as much attention as I can to what’s right with it.  If that means not saying as much, so be it.  What began as a personal effort to move forward in a productive way now seems like a political and global statement about values.

I’ll increase my volunteer and pro bono work.  It seems like this year is the year to help out wherever we can.  The human enterprise seems more than a little doom-laden and that means we have to do what we can to hold back the darkness.

I’ll double down on the facts.  Amongst many astonishingly ill-conceived ideas birthed in 2019, that Facebook would not take a stand on truth in political discourse seems to me to win some sort of dubious prize.  So I’ll do what I can to keep fact-checking and purveying the truth as best as I can determine it.  It is not OK to throw in the towel and say ‘anything goes; truth no longer matters.’

I’ll ration my social media.  The evidence is pretty clear that too much time on social media is bad for the mental health.  One study I saw suggested that more than 30 minutes a day and your gloom starts increasing.  So I’m going to hold the line there.

I’m going to stay open to the world in spite of all the apocalyptic stuff going down.  Those of you who know me personally know that 2019 was a pretty rotten year for me. The Chinese have a saying, fall down eight times, get up nine.  Or is it fall down nine times, get up ten?  Either way, the point is that giving up is not an option.  When you stay open to this world, in spite of the craziness, you have the chance at grace.  And that chance is worth all the pain and frustration.

So bring it on, 2020!  Here’s to a glimmer of hope, the courage of effort, and the beauty of unexpected human kindness amidst the darkness.