Creating and maintaining happiness, or a sense of positivity, or even just showing up at all, can be challenging at any time. It frequently happens during the November-December holidays.

There are ways to get through times like this in a more positive mindset. Here’s one: Whenever you feel your heart turning into a Grinchy chunk of ice or your thoughts turning to a Scroogey “bah humbug” theme, find a way to refocus on giving what you can, to others and to yourself. Be a giver.

Differences in work styles, emotional expression, perceptions, and understanding, between technical and non-technical people can result in misunderstanding, conflict, or limited collaboration and productivity. Or not, if an effort is made to identify and act on the differences.

Explore how you’ve been more critical of others AND yourself, often looking for what’s NOT working more than for what IS working. Sometimes you’ve even been unkind. What can you do about it?

Journalist and space historian Andrew Chaikin’s presentation “How to Get to the Moon: Success Lessons from Apollo” explores the crucial role that human behaviors play in both success and failure in group endeavors. They are about human behavior, and not about technical skills or rocket science. Most tie in with how attitude, energy, and mindset impact performance and success. Here’s a summary of the lessons.

What can you do when uncertainty is making something / everything more messy, uncontrollable, and anxiety-inducing?