How to navigate the next 100 days of turmoil? Focus on two simple things

You’ve seen and heard a lot of stories lately examining the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

The details are mostly the same: the tariffs that have tanked the economy, the roundups of immigrants — including the man mistakenly sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador — the chainsaw that Elon Musk and his DOGE project set upon nearly the entire federal government, the plummeting approval ratings and the fear that Trump and his allies are breaking our country in ways that can never be fixed.

There’s no point in avoiding that news. It shouldn’t be avoided. We are living in a time that historians will talk about centuries from now. We owe it to ourselves to look the facts in the face and be honest.

But I also wonder if it’s worth it for each of us to look at our own past 100 days.

I think of two questions:

One: Did we do something to make the world better, instead of doom-scrolling and rage-posting?

And two: Did we take care of ourselves?

I know I sometimes feel like I fall short on both counts.

Journalists aren’t activists. We don’t march in rallies or put political signs in our yards. But we hope the stories we tell give you the information you need to navigate the world and make better decisions. Commentators like me get to tell you our opinions, but we’re always one step removed from the process — Which is as it should be.

Many of us — and I’m including myself here — have also felt overwhelmed by the daily barrage. It’s easy to lose yourself in the news and forget about the soft spring winds and the birds calling in the trees. It’s easy to stay up too late and not get enough exercise. It’s easy to let the ugly inertia of these days drag you to a standstill.

But one thing I've come to believe from watching a lot of sports over the years is that you have to believe in process over outcomes. If you play your best, you might not win, but you can walk away with no regrets. I feel like that’s the sane way to process these next 100 days, and the 100 after that. There’s a long way to go before the next presidential election.

Do something to make the world better. Take care of yourself. They sound so simple as to seem hardly worth mentioning. But I think a lot of our future depends on how we actually follow through.