After only six months and 16 episodes, George Elliott's podcast channel had 300 direct downloads (and thousands of feed hits). It currently has over 400 direct downloads.
We are merely days away from the start of a brand new year. It is the time to make a list of things we want to do in 2017 and turn them into New Year’s Resolutions. You know, those promises we make to ourselves each January that often barely make it to the end of the month. It’s an exercise I have not participated in for several years.
Make that, many, many years.
In fact, I cannot recall the last time I made even one New Year’s Resolution. Possibly the last one I made was to never make any more of them. Sure, a resolution is not a bad idea and I don’t want you to think I am trying to talk you in or out of anything. If your annual end-of-year tradition is to make a few resolutions, then go ahead and continue. You’ll just be doing it without me.
While I look back on 2016 I can come up with many reasons to try to forget the year as quickly as possible. I lost a life-long companion in February when we had to put Magnum – a cat I’ve had for close to 19 years – to sleep. It was not as easy as I expected and thankfully my wife, Brenda was there with me. I hope to never experience that again.
Throughout the first half of the year we struggled with our business. As it turned out, the first quarter of 2016 was the absolute worse for my company in the 12 years I had owned it. I expected – and hoped and prayed for a turnaround – but it never came. In May we decided to just shut the doors at the end of July. We didn’t sell the business, we just closed it.
It was a sad experience for me and I was asked again today if I had plans to eventually reopen. When I said that I wasn’t going to I was then asked if I have missed my business. I have been asked that question often lately (twice today) and while I didn’t at first, I am starting to miss it a little bit more each time I get asked.
The other side of the coin is that logically it (reopening the business) can’t happen and that I have moved on. Speaking of moving, that was part of our original plan after closing our business. It didn’t happen as our lives changed and other opportunities came our way as we were days away from our final day in our office space.
We did have a wonderful holiday in August – a time I have never taken a holiday in my working years. We explored a part of the province both of us barely knew. It inspired us to make an annual holiday plan for roughly the same time of year. We also have found a great deal of freedom attached to the changes in our lives following the closure of our business. However, none of this has convinced me I need to make a New Year’s Resolution.
I’m not fretting over my weight, although I could stand to drop a few pounds, nor do I feel the need to bulk up or join a gym. I don’t smoke nor do I drink so the typical vices that resolutions are built upon do not exist in my life, so I find making these lose weight/stop smoking/eat better promises not a necessary part of my life.
Besides, I don’t need a special date in order to start doing something new or different. I think that’s the main reason why I do not make New Year’s Resolutions. They say it takes three weeks or 21 days to establish a new habit. Nowhere does it say that in order for that habit to be valid the change must start on January 1st.
And so, a New Year will enter my life as it normally does – a different month and year to start getting used to writing down when I start any of my freelance projects after the end of December. For more reasons why I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, check out this podcast: Ninja on the Loose.
Make that, many, many years.
In fact, I cannot recall the last time I made even one New Year’s Resolution. Possibly the last one I made was to never make any more of them. Sure, a resolution is not a bad idea and I don’t want you to think I am trying to talk you in or out of anything. If your annual end-of-year tradition is to make a few resolutions, then go ahead and continue. You’ll just be doing it without me.
While I look back on 2016 I can come up with many reasons to try to forget the year as quickly as possible. I lost a life-long companion in February when we had to put Magnum – a cat I’ve had for close to 19 years – to sleep. It was not as easy as I expected and thankfully my wife, Brenda was there with me. I hope to never experience that again.
Throughout the first half of the year we struggled with our business. As it turned out, the first quarter of 2016 was the absolute worse for my company in the 12 years I had owned it. I expected – and hoped and prayed for a turnaround – but it never came. In May we decided to just shut the doors at the end of July. We didn’t sell the business, we just closed it.
It was a sad experience for me and I was asked again today if I had plans to eventually reopen. When I said that I wasn’t going to I was then asked if I have missed my business. I have been asked that question often lately (twice today) and while I didn’t at first, I am starting to miss it a little bit more each time I get asked.
The other side of the coin is that logically it (reopening the business) can’t happen and that I have moved on. Speaking of moving, that was part of our original plan after closing our business. It didn’t happen as our lives changed and other opportunities came our way as we were days away from our final day in our office space.
We did have a wonderful holiday in August – a time I have never taken a holiday in my working years. We explored a part of the province both of us barely knew. It inspired us to make an annual holiday plan for roughly the same time of year. We also have found a great deal of freedom attached to the changes in our lives following the closure of our business. However, none of this has convinced me I need to make a New Year’s Resolution.
I’m not fretting over my weight, although I could stand to drop a few pounds, nor do I feel the need to bulk up or join a gym. I don’t smoke nor do I drink so the typical vices that resolutions are built upon do not exist in my life, so I find making these lose weight/stop smoking/eat better promises not a necessary part of my life.
Besides, I don’t need a special date in order to start doing something new or different. I think that’s the main reason why I do not make New Year’s Resolutions. They say it takes three weeks or 21 days to establish a new habit. Nowhere does it say that in order for that habit to be valid the change must start on January 1st.
And so, a New Year will enter my life as it normally does – a different month and year to start getting used to writing down when I start any of my freelance projects after the end of December. For more reasons why I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, check out this podcast: Ninja on the Loose.
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