Oh my! Year end is fast approaching.  Most everyone I speak with feels a little rushed this holiday season, more so than last year.  Maybe it's the improving economy. Maybe it's because there are fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe it's because we just have poor memories and it really doesn't feel any differently than years past. Whatever it is, I suggest to you, like I suggest to myself, that it's all a matter of perspective.

In many respects, Labor Day is the beginning of the new business year. Business owners and executives start thinking on closing out 2013, new budgets are being cast and 2014 business initiatives are being set in motion. To get some perspective on how this has gone in previous years to see if there really is a difference or if we just perceive it to be more rushed, I looked back on years past and particularly those since 2007. Since I was an expert witness in a real estate case for much of last week where the issue revolved around the state of the real estate market in the fall of 2008, I had to recall those past months. Do you remember them? We were deep into the reverberation of the shock waves that rattled the credit markets and things were quite bleak in most of the sectors that you and I work. There was nothing positive to look forward to in the upcoming New Year. Most of us were disheartened, so not only did we feel the rush of getting through all that needs to get done this time of year, we had less money and worsening prospects that things were going to be any better soon.
 
So fast forward to today where we have the advantage of the "past". Have we made any significant changes that make us better prepared for the stress of year end and all that it brings? I say yes many have, if their perspective changed...If you feel better prepared now because you changed the way you did things over the tough years. If you perceive that you are stronger and more efficient than you were because you made it through the deep recession, then the rush felt now is not that bad and it's just the way things get this time of year. If on the other hand you notice that the past few years were a worthless struggle that didn't result in you or your company being better at what gets done, then the perception you have is resulting in a feeling of great stress and that stress has no value.

My year end hope for everyone is that if we're going to have stress, it brings value. The value may be a lesson or it may be the "mother of invention" that makes us decide to do something different than we've done before. My year end hope is that we remember perception is reality and that only we have the power to adjust our perceptions. My year end hope is that we get done what needs to be done. My year end hope is for us all to look forward to spending time with friends and family during the next couple of weeks knowing that we've done what we can to prepare for a prosperous new year.

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