Flipping The Sign

"The End Is Just The Beginning."

I guess it's appropriate to say "Good-Bye" to 2012. As far as I'm concerned, it won't really be a year to remember. I did some fun stuff, and had a great time. But mostly, I'll remember 2012 for what didn't happen.

For example, the world didn't end as the Mayans evidently thought it would.

I didn't quit smoking like I thought I would. (but I finally found something that I think will help.)

My Africa trip, which resulted in a whole lot of good things BTW, didn't result in a new relationship.

I didn't really accomplish much personally, professionally or in any other paradigm.

It was a relaxing, restful, enjoyable year. But so what? And the end of it, I'm left wanting more. I'm anxious and excited to go around the bend and see what's there. I feel like I'm waking up from a very enjoyable and well deserved nap, and ready to get on with the day.

So, as I flip the sign over from 2012 to 2013, I'm also looking to a more productive, more profitable, more successful year. Maybe after two or three of those, I can have another year like 2012 to coast and enjoy life.

Let Us Worship

"The world didn't end, so Let's Have Christmas."

This was not my favorite Christmas.

I'm blaming busyness for ruining Christmas this year. Things have been so crazy busy the past few months that I had to move into survival mode. Nobody else knows it because I still did a good job of picking the best gifts I could find, and did all of the right stuff on the outside. But inside, in the part of life that matters, I just wasn't in to Christmas.

The message of Christmas is not 'Let It Snow' (which it did), or 'Let Us Shop' (which I did). Christmas is about worship.

It is about perceiving and following the Christmas Star right up to the place of worship. Christmas is about recognizing and accepting a life and destiny that is fundamentally different and better than the one into which I was born, and laying down my meager gifts and talents in exchange for the purpose and impact of a bright star on a dark night...of the baby that changed the course of history...of change, renewal, hope, humility and all of the other images presented in the nativity.

It is about following the star without getting lost or distracted. Without losing hope or interest. Without thinking that the journey is too long or too hard. Without being kidnapped by busyness, wealth, pride, pleasure or fear.

Christmas is about faith - not in my own ability to complete this journey, but in the ability of the Star to guide me and the Baby to accept me, and the angels to protect me and the wise men to teach me and the shepherds to rescue me if I get tangled up.

It is about encouraging each other, families, friends and other travelers to take a few more steps. It is about anticipation of the life that will be, and will never 'not be' again.

It's about worship.

I may be a day late, but I'm there now. I hope I never again 'do' all of the wrong stuff and 'not do' all of the right stuff where Christmas is concerned.

Just In Case

"An Open Letter to My Coworkers."

Just in case the Mayans got it right, and the world as we know it comes to an abrupt, catastrophic end tomorrow, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell each of you how much I have enjoyed working with you. We’ve had some fun, made some money, fought a little and laughed a lot. We really have created a family here, and I am proud to have been a part of it. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to get to know each of you and your families over the years, and will really miss you if I survive and you don’t. It’s been a great ride.

I’m pretty sure the predictions for 12-21-12 are wrong. God wouldn’t let the end of the world come before the next Star Trek movie is released May 17, 2013. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, and I don’t want to leave anything unsaid. So I want to say a special ‘just in case’ farewell to Diane and that damn dog she brings to work with her on Wednesday. Could it be that Junebug’s incessant whining is her way of trying to warn us about the impending doom coming tomorrow? Or is she just a whiny dog? We’ll all know soon.

And it will be too bad if the end of the world comes just two short days after Marla learned to make coffee in a real coffee pot.

If anything does happen tomorrow, I think we have the skill sets to deal with it expeditiously and effectively, each in our own way. Whatever it is that happens, Fred will probably shoot it. Janis will undoubtedly shake her finger at it and tell it what for. Diane will organize it, Chrys will enter it (assuming the paperwork is right), Brad will forget it by Sunday, Bryan will laugh at it and Tommy will probably offer to buy it. I expect Winn will send it an email and Jim will infamously say, “Hmm. I’ll be darn.” Charity will bitch about how much money it costs, and Mario will wave politely and say, “Helllow”. We can tell Esteban to fix it, then all chant, “He broke it, he broke it.” I think we’ll be OK.

One never knows about these ‘end of the world’ predictions. So far, they’ve all been wrong. But only one has to be right, and none of us knows whether this is the one.

But it occurs to me today, very possibly the day before the end of it all, that we should each do our best to Finish Strong and go out with a bang. And, no, I don’t mean a big party! I mean living life as if today is our last day here – doing something really good, profound, worthy of the effort that has been invested in us, etc. And if the world doesn’t end tomorrow, maybe we should start living every day with the same mindset. If the world continues on past tomorrow, it will not be unchanged. We can, individually and corporately, change it for the better. (This is the only real value I can see in all of these doomsday predictions anyway.)

And just in case something does happen, we need a plan – strike that – a STRATEGY. So, I propose that in the event of some calamity tomorrow, we should all head for Esteban’s house in Mexico. It’s in Tecozautla, Mexico just a little NNW of Mexico City. I’m sure if we ask people down there where his house is, they’ll be able to tell us. If doomsday comes, we’ll all meet there and eat tamales and drink tequila. If worse comes to worse I really hope to see you all there.

If It Fits, It Ships

"Wisdom from the Post Office? Really?"

One profound thought I had as I relive and digest the Africa trip I took earlier this year, and the guy I hoped would turn out to be a closer friend, is about relationships, connections and even romance.

I'm not a 19-year old college kid, and I (surprisingly enough) have spent exactly no time second guessing myself, wondering why things didn't work out, asking myself what I could have done diffferently, etc.

Hey. For me, that's pretty damn good.

Furthermore, I didn't 'not' do these things on purpose. I just naturally assumed the stance that, "It Is What It Is", and dismissed the whole thing. Honestly, this is really unlike me. But it feels good.

Thinking through it a little more, I decided that I'm old enough, secure enough in who I am, and smart enough to look at things differently now than I would have a few years ago. In business long ago, I learned the axiom that, "if the best I can do isn't good enough, there's no hope for you." With irate customers, employees or even vendors, the best I can do is all there is. There isn't any more. If there was, I would do it.

It's fun to feel the same about relationships. I fully understand my limitations and shortcomings. But I have a lot of assets too. If I'm not good enough (which may indeed be true), then there's nothing more I can offer, nothing else to put on the table.

Which leads me to say, "Best of luck to you, and Have a nice life. I have a good life without you, and have no interest in intruding into yours." Then let the whole thing fall on the ground and get back to work.

Too bad I wasn't a good fit. It would have been a fun trip.

Five Day Forecast

"I'm behind blogging. I better hurry and get caught up."

Since, assuming the Mayans were right, the end of the world is Friday, I better update my blog.

I did indeed make it back from a wonderful trip to Africa. It was awesome. We did a lot of really good things, fun things and eye-opening things. The guy I like? Well, "I'm a great guy but not good enough." Gee, I never heard that before.

Since then, life has been frantically busy, which I hate. But it has been filled with good things, which I love. Because time is so short, I won't share the details. But the last three months have flown by faster than any other time period I can remember.

One thing I will say is that November and December (so far) have been terrible for sales at work. We're having the worst two months since July, 2008. This is exactly how things started for us in December, 2007 before the recession. We were impacted six months before the rest of the world knew what was going on. Hopefully this isn't round two.

(But if it is, oh well. The world ends Friday anyway.)

It's too bad too. I was really looking forward to 2013. 2011 was the year of Momentum for me. 2012 was a year to basically coast. 2013 was shaping up to be the year of Wellness and Strength. I'm really ready to focus on these issues in my life, our business and the world at large. I have even been considering resurrecting by blog.

Well, hopefully the forecast above is as wrong as most of our local weather forecasts. I'm convinced that Oklahoma is Purgatory for meteorologists. They never get it right here.