Brand Spanking New… Year

One little statement. 

If only we could grasp the power of one little statement. 

Think about it.  If someone had intervened – and made a statement of protest – when a little Serbian company (called Zastava) decided it wanted to make cars, and then chose the name Yugo, perhaps they would have come up with an altogether better name – something really cool like Autobahn, or Millennium Cars.  And after such an intervention, just MAYBE that little company would have sold millions of cars in the United States – all because of one little statement like “Uh, hmmm.  That’s kind of a dumb name.”  Who knows?  Maybe they would have gone back into their focus groups.   That’s all I’m sayin’.  Instead the Yugo was voted Car Talk’s worst car of the millennium, and never made it past 1991 in the U.S.  When the plant closed in Yugoslavia, in November 2008, they had only sold a total of 794,428 cars.  (Of course, this is all from Wikipedia.  One can never trust that as a viable source).  But I digress.

I told my girlfriend Brit the name of this post yesterday (Brand Spanking New… Year).  She, being the bright, witty individual that she is, made this little statement, “Isn’t it a little late?” 

Whatever.  I’m not changing my post’s title.  That focus group stuff only works on big companies with no real connection to the real world!  Do you really think I’d succumb to the pressure?  PUHHH-LEEZ.  

If you are new here, welcome!  Happy New Year!  Happy Brand Spanking New Year!  These posts are normally fun, I promise.  But don’t let that scare you away. You may find this one fun, in its own way.  But we, as a collective community, DEFINITELY have a lot of fun here.  Posts tend to be a little flirtatious, flippant, frivolous — anything but ultra-serious.  But today is a little different.  I’ve been away for a while – traveling for the holidays and for business.  My last post was some time ago, and somehow I am back with something that is very important to me – so I am going to address it.  Here.

I realize it’s nearing the END of January, but I’m just getting started in this new year, and from the looks of things, we all need a little mood BOOSTER.   ALREADY!

So, here I – Ms. Cheevious – am coming to the rescue, with not just ONE, but SEVERAL little statements that are meant to remind you of how GOOD you have it, and perhaps provide you that little mood booster and motivator you’ve been looking for.

It’s the New Year, and it is TIME for some house cleaning people!  You know what I mean?  New Year, New Time, New President — and now — it’s time for a New Attitude.

Think about just this:  Every day we get ANOTHER BRAND NEW set of opportunities to make something happen for the better (for ourselves and for others)!

I’m on a mission.  I would love to get a consensus of all you lovely people reading this – but I know better.  Life is short, and busy, and we all get way too many e-mails, text messages, snail-mail, bills, voicemails and every other type of communication (on multiple platforms) – it’s just not right to expect people to take a survey or answer questions in their very valuable spare time. 

So, instead of asking what you think, I am going to take a huge leap here and assume I have the answers.  Did you expect anything else?

So, what happened people? 

What has happened to our overall sense of pride and ambition? 

What is it that caused this overwhelming sense of fear, and worry and dread that seems to have permeated our beautiful country, and why is everyone succumbing to it?  Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about.  It’s so obviously present, you can almost touch and taste it.

What made you lose your nerve – your jutspa – your moxy? 

When did you lose the gumption to be determined to succeed, in spite of or regardless of what your friends, the economy, your co-workers, the DOW is/are doing?

THIS IS AMERICA – remember?  Regardless of what economic state, or what state of mind our country (or the rest of the world, for that matter) is in, this country – THE USA – the land of the free and the home of the brave – is STILL the best country in the world to live in.  I don’t care what other people (even famous celebrities) say or think.  We still have more opportunities, and enjoy the freedom to succeed and become whomever, or whatever we want – whatever we put our minds to – more than anyone in any other country in the world. 

How can we so easily fade and crumble?  Why does it seem like everyone is perpetuating this negativity that is invading our consciousness and our psyches?  It seems you can’t go to coffee, the drug store, stand in line at the grocery store without someone shooting a statement like this out into the air, and into my ears: “Yeah.  They probably won’t be able to hire me. It’s a tough economy! ”  Here I am.  Little ole’ me, minding my own business, trying to remain positive and determined to succeed, and I am being verbally, mentally and emotionally accosted by statements like that on a CONSTANT basis! 

Is it the rising tide of economic doom that floods our airwaves everyday? Or was it simply 2008?  Was 2008 a bad year for you? 

Awe.  I’m so sorry.  Poor Baby.  Get over it.  2008 is gone.  Bye bye. 

Okay – so I may sound like your mom, or my mom – well, hell, SOMEONE’s mom – but I remember the stock market crash of 1987.  Black Monday, October 19th.  Stories started circulating about stock brokers jumping out of their windows when the market crashed.  I was oblivious to the financial consequences, in a sense.  Okay – I was like 22 years old and had no money to put into the stock market. 

I wasn’t oblivious to the worry and fear that laid like a thick blanket over the country, though.  But hey, I was a single mom.  Allowing fear of the stock market crashing and jobs being lost to slow me down or inhibit my ability to provide a nice life for my son was not an option. 

I was in business for myself, and believe me – I started to notice.  I felt the pinch.  It took a while.  It was more like 1988, but my clients started combing over their invoices to see if I just might be over-charging them.  If there was some way to pay me less.  Some of my biggest clients really suffered and eventually even went out of business.  But guess what?  I found a way.  Things changed, and I had to adapt.  I ended up giving that business to one of my employees, and moving on to other things.  But my life went on, and things turned out okay.  I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world, as hard as they were.  They led me to who I am today – to where I am today.

You’d think with that experience under my belt that I would be telling you a different story today.  You’d think I would be on the side of the gloom and doom that has infiltrated our minds.  I have the right to do it I suppose, if anyone does, because I have been there before.  I lost business over it before.

But I won’t promote those things.  The bad economy and all that entails has absolutely nothing to do with my own personal happiness, success, health or well-being.  It has nothing to do with yours either.

Remember those people from a few paragraphs up – the ones who said “They probably won’t hire me because it’s a bad economy”? I so want to say to them, “Yeah – you’re right.  They probably won’t hire you.  You’ve already decided your fate here. Why WOULD they hire you? Why don’t you just give up and quit talking and bringing everyone else down with you?”  I don’t mean to be harsh – but GEEZ. It isn’t just the economy, people.  WE have something to do with it – with our lousy attitudes, and the things we so readily agree to.

So – okay people.  It’s time for a reality check.

I saw a movie today that reminded me of how good we have it here.  It was based in India.  Those people live in slums.  Real slums.  And yet, they have joy.  They keep going and living, and making a life for themselves.  Sure there is poverty and sickness.  There always is, when humans are involved.

It’s just that I am awaiting the grand entrance of HOPE.  I am waiting with baited breath for the moment in time when we all feel the veil of mental worry lift from our homes, communities, cities and country.  It will be a truly incredible day when we can look back at this time and be glad we stood strong, and didn’t let things bring us down. Better yet, how much better it will be if we now, somehow find the focus, strength and determination to succeed and do exceedingly, abundantly better than ever, in spite of the current situation?  That my friends, is something I plan to do.  At least I’m working on it. 

You can do it too.  And you won’t be alone.  I tend to agree that smart, vivacious, lovely people like yourselves can accomplish anything you put your minds to.  So, do you care to join me?  Let’s conquer this, and move on to bigger and better things.

Love you people!  Mmmmmmphhhuuuhhhh!

xoxo,

Ms. Cheevious

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