It seems that ever so often we have a new holiday that pops up. I imagine that ever calendar day of the year has now been claimed by one group or another as significant. Seems like we are dedicating days all the time to one cause or another. Some holidays are associated with time off of work, the most notable being the Federal Paid days off. There are a total of 9 of those now. Some days have stayed in the super elite paid off days for a long time, others have fallen off to be replaced. Holidays tend to be stack ranked by what percentage of the population celebrates them. It is reported that about 96& of the U.S. population celebrates Christmas Day, December 25th and the amount of money that is spent on average due to that specific holiday is around 630M. So Christmas is a paid day off and the highest ranking holiday in the calendar. Sorry Thanksgiving, you remain #2.
I bring all that up because I decided to create my own holiday. My personal holiday. It ranks as dead last in the holiday rankings. It is celebrated by one person. Well, check that. According to the National Day registry – this is also National Pawnbrokers Day, National Microwave Oven Day, National Gazpacho Day 9cold vegetable soup, I had to look that up), St. Nicholas Day, and Miner’s Day. Contrary to popular belief, Christmas day is not for Santa Claus. His day is actually December 6th. So, even though I have declared December 6th as my own personal holiday, it is a bit crowded. However, something tell me that the Miner’s of America will forgive me. I will take a moment of silence for all the miner’s that have died digging minerals out of the earth that I take for granted……done.
Anyway, the 6th of December is my own day because on this day several important events occurred. Several life transformative decisions I have made on this day over the years. Now it started by accident. I had no idea that the day was significant, until one day, I found out that I just so happened to do two important things on the same day, exactly 10 years apart. Another 10 years went by and I accidently made a big decision on December 6th again. So now, I have just made it official. December 6th is the day when I make a big life changing decision, if there is one to make.
Now, there is no real big life decision to make right now. Well, I guess there could be if I really wanted to, but nothing really pressing. Having said that, it is a great day for me to reflect personally on what is going on in my life and take stock. Some people do this on New Years Day or Eve, but I find that hard. We are usually doing something and we are busy so that makes it hard. Also, if I really do want to change my life in any dramatic way, then it is good to have some prep time before the new year turns over. Finally, December 6th is good because by this time all the nice yummy Thanksgiving Pecan Pie’s are gone and not around to tempt me if I decided to improve my nutrition as part of my goals.
All of this is a long way to state that I think it is really important to take a day when you really consider how you are doing against your long term goals. A day to take stock, measure your progress. You can choose to renew commitments, record goals down on paper, write a future vision for yourself. I have several of those future vision statements now, I have kept them and perhaps one day, I will put them together and see how well I did against my dreams.
Anyway, Happy December 6th to all of you. Take a moment to focus on how you can be a better person. That is what I do on this very special day.
Guy Reams
