I watched a wonderful documentary last night recommended by Susan Landa in Portland, OR who I met at a Capital One event. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is about John Peterson’s rollercoaster ride trying to work and hold on to the land that has been in his family for generations. I admire him because through all of his failures and successes, he was constantly pulled back to the farm where he grew up and the connection to the land. After decades of “Bouncing”, he was finally able to make it work with a cooperative organic farm. Turns out, my wife also went to school with the director, Taggart Siegel and remembers “the farm” with her days at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

I have been looking back on my resolutions over the past 3 years on this blog. Last year, I gave up the difficult resolutions like not checking email so often and focused on some concrete, more realistic goals. So how did I do this year?

1. Publish my second book. Done! Bounce! ships January 28th! BTW, this was also a 2006 NYE resolution

2. Publish the audio of my first book, You Need To Be A Little Crazy! Done! It came out last September.

3. Get Katherine, my assistant and I more training. Improve my professional speaking skills. Done. We both went to National Speaker Association events. I worked with Victoria LaBalme, and Robin Creasman. I got up my new web site, brochures, video, and honed my speaker skills.

4. Take a rank promotion at Karate. Done I passed my advanced Green Belt in April with a dislocated finger, bloody toe and bruised ribs.

5. Take Pilates twice a Week. Fail. My trainer, Heidi quit the club and with my new trainer, my travel has not enabled me to do this.

2008 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Boost Bounce! Get out there and promote the book. Practice, Practice, Practice the Bounce! Keynote speech.

2. Spend more time at our Michigan Beach House with my family. This is a place where there is no TV and no Internet…and somehow we manage to have lots of fun.

3. Take the rank promotion test to Brown Belt in Karate (maybe my last?). Do at least a Yoga minute per day with Sara.

What are your resolutions?

I know there can be alot of pressure around this time of year, but I actually love these last few weeks. In keeping with the spirit of “lists” this time of year, here are my top reasons.

1. We slow down. There is an ending date by which people want to do business every year. Today it is the weekend before Christmas. Next week, we all get a free pass.No one calls. No one emails. It feels like August in Europe. We don’t have to accomplish anything. For at least, one week we are guilt free.

2. We take time off to be with their family. I do not believe that life/work balance really exists. This week belongs to your family and friends. See #1.

3. We stop to reflect on their year. We look back on our celebrations, our accomplishments and our failures. We stop and say thanks to those who have been on the journey with us.

4. We make resolutions. I am not a big fan of making resolutions but the intention is in the right place. If we strive for minimal acheivement and make just one, we have more of a chance to achieve it. We have a chance for the change to stick.

5. We give each other gifts. We think about our clients, friends, and families and shop for something they might like or something they might need. Having an excuse to give someone a gift is alot of fun.

6. We greet each other with a smile. We say “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year”. This beats “hey, how you doing?” or “bye”.

Why do you love/ hate this time of year?