Looking at a new year in a new way

This is a column about fear, cream, and New Year’s resolutions.

A very wise woman once said to me…actually it was a teacher in a class I went to with a friend at a graduate business school in France, just outside of Paris. Which, of course, is another story entirely.

Anyway, she said you should never make a business decision based on fear.

So let’s say you want to open a candy shop, but you’re afraid your candy isn’t good enough or that you won’t be able to market it well enough. Or your friends might think you’re an idiot to go into business for yourself “in this economy.” Or, or, or, or.

You should really decide whether or not to open a candy business based on what kinds of candy you make well and what you think people will want. You should have confidence that you can make a good business plan and follow through with success, or that you have the good sense to recognize where your plan should be tweaked to make it a success. Maybe you should sell rainwear, for example, because you live in Seattle and people buy more boots than chocolate.

Anyway, I’ve always thought this was good life advice in general, to not make my decisions based on a lack of confidence or on the fact that I was just plain scared to try something. I can recognize that at my age and athletic ability, maybe it’s not the best time for me to finally learn to parachute out of a plane, but maybe it’s not such a bad time for me to join one of those old lady cheer-leading groups if I wanted. Which I don’t, but I’m not going to not do it because I’m scared of high kicking.

But now for the cream and resolutions parts.

I love New Year’s resolutions. More than fireworks, more than George Clooney movies. And every year I make a new resolution to lose weight. This goes along with my resolutions to be on time, listen before I talk too much, and get Christmas done before Thanksgiving instead of December 23rd.

I worry about being late not because I don’t want to miss anything, but because I’m afraid people will get mad. I want to get Christmas done early because I hate Christmas shopping.

The lose weight resolution is usually followed by twelve months of eating diet everything and never losing weight.

One of this year’s resolutions is to listen to people because I enjoy them. To stop and listen to my whole life more and to appreciate it.

I’m not going to make my resolutions based on fear of what might happen if I don’t do certain things, but on what I want to accomplish because I believe I can do more. I haven’t gotten all of my resolutions written out yet, but one of them is going to involve the words “first melt a half pound of unsalted butter,” or “whip a pint of cream until stiff peaks form.”

Then I’m going to hope for the best.

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