The First Week of January Test, 2014: How Does it Feel to Be Back After the Holidays?

Monday, January 6, 2014 at 11am
By John Friedman

Dark and early this morning, before even mentioning his favorite and seemingly ever-present traffic jam on the Sunol Grade, long-time KQED traffic guy Joe McConnell said it nice ‘n blunt:
 

It’s back to the grind for most of us today.

 
It’s a common enough phrase, but hearing it today, half asleep the first Monday back after the long holiday season, I couldn’t help but go a step further, conjuring up an image of all us lemmings people sidling up to, and then firmly planting our noses against, the grindstone.
 

Nose to the grindstone

Kudos to the fellow in the middle for
applying healthy doses of
elbow grease, eh?


 
All of which is to say: people . . . it’s the first week of January, and that means it’s time for you to write down your answer to The First Week of January Test, a test with but a single question and no wrong answers.

Here’s the question:
 

How does it feel to be back in your normal day-to-day routine?

 

Go ahead: write down your answer.

Does it feel good to be back, or even fantastic? Or does it feel rotten to be back, or even tortuous? Or something in between?

And do you look out to the year ahead and get all happy and jazzed? Or do you look out and get all somber and bummed? Or something in between?

Go ahead, write something down. Do not edit yourself. Capture the moment for all times’ sake.

And then please file it along with any other answers to The First Week of January Test you’ve written down over the years, and please do feel free to share your thoughts with others via a comment or, far more privately, with people in your life or even with your friendly financial health advisor, moi.

And, but of course, do share it with your future self from time to time, and do, as you are making decisions throughout this brand new year — as you make all the little decisions that day-to-day life entails, and as you cogitate all the great big decisions accompanying you everywhere you go, left undecided, patiently awaiting your response — keep a watchful eye on the extent to which each of those decisions makes it possible for you to answer The First Week of January Test in ever-increasingly jubilant ways with each passing year.

Each of those decisions — every last one of them, I would argue — has at least a minor financial aspect to it, and many of them are driven almost entirely by financial considerations. Are those financial considerations pulling in pretty much the same direction as all the other considerations tied up in the decision? If so, excellent. If not, you’ve got some room remaining for improvement of what I call your non-numeric financial health.

* * *

If you’d like to learn more about what The First Week of January Test is all about — what it has to do with your financial life, how it relates to the John Friedman Financial definition of financial health as having both numeric and non-numeric aspects, and how all of that ties in with a simple way to fairly effortlessly be in action on continuously improving your overall financial health — then please see this piece:


John Friedman Financial’s
Statement of Fundamental Principals, Number One:
Financial Health Defined

 
And a very wonderful and financially healthy 2014 and beyond to you and to yours!

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