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It’s about the process

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By Avi Frier - FJN Publisher

Every Sunday morning, I make omelettes for the family and enjoy a leisurely breakfast with the Sunday paper. My favorite sections, as you might have guessed, are the opinion pages and the comics.

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This past Sunday, January 1, it came as no surprise that the running theme throughout both of these sections was “New Year’s Resolutions.” Everyone from columnists to letter writers to comic strip characters told us of their big plans for self-improvement in 2006.

I’m curious as to how many of these resolutions are already forgotten. I’ve heard it said that New Year’s resolutions always manage to “go in one year and out the other.”

My friend Lisa Rutner, a financial planner for Smith Barney, frequently tells her clients, “It’s not about the product, it’s about the process.” In other words, don’t micromanage your investments; just stay in for the long haul, the process, and you’ll do just fine.

We are a society driven by The Event, when we should all be following Lisa’s advice and focusing on The Process.

An event, such as the secular New Year, or attending a motivational lecture may inspire you to make a change in your life. But it is only when we focus on the process that we are successful in effecting that change.

A man may be a great husband, loving, caring, and sensitive, 364 days a year. But let him forget his anniversary, and he’s suddenly lower than dirt. It is the event, the anniversary, one day, less than three-tenths of one percent of the year, that can somehow make or break a marriage. I’m not one who forgets anniversaries, but I would hope that if I did, like in school, 99.73% would still be an A+ (assuming, of course, that I managed to be a Grade-A husband the rest of the year).

Motivational speaker Dave Ramsey says, “Events may inspire you. But it’s the process that matures you.”

New Year’s resolutions are made by millions every December 31, and are often forgotten before the hangover even subsides on the morning of the First.

Fortunately for us, as Jews, the secular New Year represents nothing more than the change of a calendar and a few days of writing the wrong year on our checks.

Our time for New Year’s resolutions in Rosh Hashanah, a day that epitomizes the process over the event.

Rather than viewing Rosh Hashanah as a single event, the day represents the culmination of a month-long period of introspection and self-improvement.

There is no countdown to midnight, no party horns, no Dick Clark special, and no resolutions made on an alcohol-inspired whim.

I hope you enjoyed the January 1 holiday however you spent it. And if you made a few New Year’s resolutions of your own, I hope you will have the resolve to keep them.

But even if you don’t, there’s no need to worry. Rosh Hashanah is just 9 months away. As Dave Ramsey would put it, if the event of January 1 only served to inspire us, the process of Rosh Hashanah will hopefully make us more mature.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2006!


Posted by Avi Frier - FJN Publisher on 01/06 at 01:00 AM • Hits: 1137



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