So it’s the day after Christmas and it looks like a badly lit Black and White photo outside…. nothing worse than LA in the gloom. It almost feels like the life got completely sucked out of it…it did since there is no sun.

Now is the time to look around, take stock and pare down…that is if the economy didn’t do it to you already.

Instead of feeling burdened with the economy, health care debates, explosives on airliners…. be happy with what you have and WHO you have.

This posting is actually a mash up of several feelings and observations that I’ve been having and feeling. You see, I just returned from a day in Santa Monica and I made the vast error in judgment in leaving my cool, cozy and wrapped up walk on the beach, to venture into the stores to see if I could find a sale…a big sale since anything under 60% off just isn’t a sale in my mind.

Rabid buying, rude people cutting in line and little kids screaming to get the latest cool shoes or t-shirt. Ouch…. we haven’t learned anything from the past year. We still haven’t reined it in or tried to instill actual values where they are seemingly void. Stuff doesn’t fill the hole; love, respect, family, health and that cool walk on the beach, does.

So with that, I made my list of new years resolutions…and I do stick to mine having quit smoking last year after 30 years. So here it goes…

1. Smile. When someone cuts in line or keeps pushing into you with their grocery cart….smile. When someone cuts you off in traffic or almost runs you over in a cross walk…smile. Smile because you know that you are better than that and that other person has their priorities screwed up.

2. Find entertainment that doesn’t include shopping. Personal spending will not get us out of this economic nightmare…it will only make you beholden to the banks. What will get us out of this nightmare is for us all collectively, to realize that things don’t make you cool….you make you cool. Things don’t make you happy, people make you happy. Things do not elevate you in class or social position; they just show others how insecure you are because you cannot change your class or social position with things…people with real class and social position have always known this.

…..Try an experiment…buy what you need and not what you want; buy less than you can afford; buy a car that is utilitarian; buy a home that is at the low end of the mortgage that you qualified for….and why not try visiting a friend just to sit and talk rather than going shopping.

3. Re-do your entire place….but don’t spend a penny. Rearrange, throw out, scavenge hunt for that perfect mirror, trade furniture items with a friend…try it!

Make the dining room into a den and a bedroom into an office or yoga room.

4. Be happy….happy is as happy does. Treat others the way that you want to be treated…cherish friendships and don’t take them for granted. Respect your friend enough to tell them the truth when they need it and to shut up and listen…when they need it.

5. Oh yeah…smile

Cheers,

Mark