Preserving Our Past For The Future

inspriation

I am very much a Type A personality, so I really don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I kind of resolve all during my waking hours.

That said I do make plans, have wishes, hopes based on what transpired or didn’t transpire in my life over the last 365 days (next year I have an extra day to consider).

2019 saw a difference in my family with the birth of grandchild # 4, Marjorie. We are finishing up her first year on January 4th and all the “getting used to her” is pretty much a given. I hope 2020 to spend more time one on one with her so she will remember me when I am gone. I may or may not see her grow up and marry and have children and reach her own family state , so now is a more important time to spend with her than it was with the others I think at the same age.

2019 saw me downsize my estate business, then pretty much close up shop on it. It was and is a good feeling and one of the things I determined to do in 2019. 2020 I want to move forward with the online selling, but not
necessarily gear up volume as much as be pickier with my purchases, redeem my work time with more focusing, set myself some work hours that “cut off”. I want to make more money, but work smarter this year!

2019 I sold my home of almost 27 years and moved into a totally different home, city and lifestyle. The last few months of 2019 saw my time fly away, and my body groan with the physical necessities that moving entails. In 2020 I want to ease back into the master plan….more Rhonda time in my little bungalow, time to read, reflect, write and do things that have been on the back burner for years. 2020 will see me saying “no” more often than in the past to good things because I want only to say “yes” to the great things. That may be difficult. I love to go and do and see and experience. But I have really noticed since moving and settling in a new home, I crave the time to just feed the birds, sit outside, take walks, investigate things. You cannot do that if you are #1 not home, and #2 not engaged in your own life at home. I plan to allow myself to get diverted less often, and focus more on my simple pleasures. I may lose playmates here and there, but I guess that will have to be ok. I have found that like my own company.

I want to choose more wisely how I spend my minutes and with whom… for those become hours, then days, then years. It doesn’t mean I don’t love others, I just need more white space in my life so I can love better, and that most likely involves me not “attending” every event, or filling in every calendar page, or scheduling time off.

I want to find my place to plug in at church, meet new people, do new things…but only if they fit the master plan. That’s only fair to us both.

Lastly, I want to put away the last remnants of the past that have held my mind in bondage and free myself up to be ok with the Lord, ok with my fellow man, ok with myself. I am over “it” whatever “it” is or was, I am on to new things. No more ruminating over things that were not great at the time, but gave me good checkpoints for the future I want to live.

As I move into my 60th year (dang that is a long time to live, eh?) and celebrate that birthday, I want to do so gracefully and choose now to do so in “quietness and trust, gaining strength”, as it says in Isaiah 30:15.

My word for 2020 as my page turns? Calmness.

What a busy week! We secured several new customers and somehow took care of the existing customers, even though we were short-handed due to some unexpected setbacks in staffing. Over the last several months, I have been formulating some CORE Values for my company. Today was their debut to the managers, and tomorrow’s staff meeting will see them introduced to the rest of the staff.

So many things in business and personal lives are so darned wishy-washy. What someone says they believe and adhere to today may be a total opposite of what they proclaim tomorrow. Situational ethics seems to be the norm and so many life decisions are based on whatever predicament someone may find themselves in at any given time. I remember a story in my teen years and the basic principle holds true even today.

A counselor at one of our church camp retreats was talking about peer pressure and how easy it is to make the wrong decision if you make a decision in a moment, rather than making a decision in your mind first. She talked about teen sex and it gave way to a lively, but actually interesting conversation between the teens. One was bold enough to ask the counselor if she had indeed made the decision ahead of time to save herself for marriage. The counselor had responded, “Yes but I also had a back up plan to assure my own abstinence and secure my decision.” Then she was asked by a second teen what that plan was. “Well, I carried a quarter in my pocket at all times on all dates.” Puzzled, the teen asked how a quarter was capable of keeping a teen abstinent when the boyfriend put pressure on the young girl in the heat of the moment. “When I started getting pressured, and felt myself starting to doubt my decision, I pulled out my quarter and handed it to my date. I said ‘Here’s a quarter…you call my Daddy and if he says it’s alright with him, then it’s alright with me.’ ”

You have to plan ahead to be successful at anything in this life and not let situational ethics prevail and make life-changing decisions for you. Putting down CORE Values on paper, whether in business or in personal life, puts some “be” in the beliefs you hold. Here are my company’s CORE Values. Hopefully they are what my company strives to live…and pretty much, with a slight change in wording here and there, what I can pull out of my pocket in my own life as I learn to “be” what I was created to be:

1.Deliver WOW Customer Service (or live with integrity)

2. Embrace Change and Practice Empowerment

3. Make it Fun and Spread Happiness

4. Be Creative, and Open-Minded

5. Pursue Growth and Learning

6.Promote Open and Honest Relationships

7.Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8.Respect Others and Their Ideas

9. Do More With Less

10. Be Humble and Display a Servant’s Heart

11. Be Passionate and Determined

12. Believe It is Always About Them, and Never About Us (me)