New Year's Resolutions

It’s New Year’s resolution time once again and the web is full of great ideas on how to slim down, save money or party like a Kardashian. The first two sound ok, but I still don’t get the fixation with the dysfunctional Kardashian clan…but that’s another topic all in itself. No matter which great idea you choose, probably close to 100% of these ill-chosen resolutions will fail. But how can this be so when we see so many thin, rich people partying like its 1999? It will work, but I think the failure rate is tied more to the timing of the resolution than the resolution itself.

Here I go again sharing good advice I gleaned from my very first broker; you know, the one I said I got no good advice from. But what he told me on this matter has stuck with me for years. We were sitting around the office during that lull between Christmas and the New Year trying to act like we were conducting some type of real estate business. I was still trying to get used to the idea of sitting around talking about work actually being work, but he had been at it for years so he genuinely appeared busy. This is when I asked him if he had chosen a resolution for the coming year. “Nope” was all he said as he grabbed the phone to make a call.

Well he never said anything else on the subject so later in the day, while we were eating lunch, I asked him again. Food always made him friendly, so I knew it was a good time to follow up. He said that he never made any type of commitment to a new idea as long as there was a celebration (he probably meant alcohol) going on. He said a new year’s resolution was like hugging a stranger in a bar and telling them you loved them. He said his new year would begin on February one as would his resolution. Seems kind of simple when you think about it; when you think about what it really means. How many times have you made a good decision when you were making one just because everybody else was? Lemmings leap simply because the others do, and the last time I checked they all die! Happy early New Year, it’s a little more than a month away!