New Years resolutions – dare to be different!
By Jacki Hart CLP
Prosperity Partners program manager
December is a busy month. Social calendars are full of friends and family, snow to clear, coats and boots to dig out of storage, travel plans, shopping lists, home decorating… December seems to fly by me in a blur.
January rolls around WAY too quickly, and the first thing I seem to bump into every year is someone asking about what ‘resolutions’ I made for myself on New Year’s Day. Most of my resolutions include dealing with the post-holiday shock induced by stepping on the bathroom scales. Mostly resolutions revolve around ‘doing something different,’ or deciding to ‘stop doing’ something entirely. Most resolutions are about personal improvement. Pretty well all New Year’s resolutions get broken or forgotten in the first month, but a few – the ones I have real conviction about – stick because I was ready for a change and needed an excuse to make that change.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2009 will be to invite business owners, who have started their journey to Prosperity in the Prosperity Partners program, to share their experience of the program with you – featuring a different business in this space in Horticulture Review each month. I have a lot of conviction about the Prosperity Partners program, and have enjoyed meeting over 150 business owners face-to-face. I really thrive on hearing the positive experience and steps this program provides. I think you, too, will enjoy reading about their journey to prosperity.
What will your New Year’s resolutions be? Are you thinking of doing something different? Are you thinking that you should stop doing one thing and start doing something else? Whether business or personal, taking time to think quietly about who you are and what you are doing is a huge part of the journey.
As a holiday gift, I’d like to share following:
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, and we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense, and more knowledge, but less judgment. We have more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
“We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
“We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
“We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space, but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
“These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw-away morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...“
Whatever changes you quietly promise to make for your journey to better living – I hope it will include networking with your community of friends and peers at Landscape Ontario, and reminding yourself of the passion you have about the work you do so well.
My very best wishes for a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year.
Jacki Hart may be reached at prosperity@landscapeontario.com.