January, New Year, Again!

January is a cold month. It is an anti-climactic month (follows the business of the holidays). For an accountant (that would be me) it is a month when one year is "closed" and another is "opened". All the work that is done by all the employees for all the customers is reduced to a few sheets of paper with numbers on them. We use that document as a management tool to evaluate the year, to make improvements, and to plan ahead.

I guess the 35 years I have been a "bean counter" in one way or another have given me some patterns for me own life. So . . . .

In January I "close" the year. I try to put away negative feelings -- grudges, self-pity, whatever might be weighing me down. That can be easy or hard depending on the nature of the year, and the answer for the biggest ones is a spiritual process. I reduce everything that has happened into a summary (for my history) or into a scrapbook. I send things to the D.I. I straighten drawers, closets, and cupboards.

Then, I "open" the new year. I decide what I will do better. Some people call that making resolutions. I remind myself of the general areas where I need to improve and when I settle on one or two that seem the most imperative, I write down a goal-setting plan. This consists of a long-term goal with interim steps that will get me there.

This sounds pretty great! The reality is that I have done this MANY, MANY years -- only some of the goal-setting plans have worked really well. Some of them have been successful -- sort of. Some have fallen by the wayside. Some have reappeared in subsequent years, and may yet appear again.

I also review my "affairs". My kids don't like me to tell them about the stuff they need to know if I die. They think I never will. Well, they are wrong, so every year (in January) I remind them of that stuff. While they don't want to hear it, they will find that I do it out of my love for them. When I do leave this world, they will have some emotional feelings to deal with -- but the "stuff" will all be prepared.

This week I reviewed the affairs. I updated my estate book and reminded the kids where to find it. I put copies of my health care directive in all the places that someone might look if I'm in a coma. I checked phone numbers for my attorney, my estate planner, my insurance guy, etc. etc. -- to be sure they are current. I inventoried my safety deposit box and brought it up to date.


AND JUST NOW, I cleaned my desk off really well. I'M READY FOR 2010!