Year End Inventory

Now is the time of the year when companies and stores begin to take inventory, evaluating their yearly sales, numbering the products on their shelves, and computing their annual incomes...

They ask themselves many questions: How did we do this past year? How did we come out? How will we plan differently for next year?

And I always thought this was a rather silly process, because if these companies would only do what they were supposed to do throughout the rest of the year, it wouldn't be such a tiring, difficult task to take a year end inventory.

But then I thought... this is something we all do really. We all take an inventory of our lives at the end of the year, evaluating our own gains and our own losses:

We ask ourselves questions: Did I put in a good year's worth of work? Did I take my dream trip to Hawaii? Did I get to that book that's been sitting on my shelf since May? Did I visit my Grandma in the hospital? Did I lose that extra thirty pounds? Did I gain an extra thirty pounds? Did I donate to charity like I promised I would? Did I make a difference in someone else's life?

We take inventory: I earned an extra $5,000. I bought a new car. I lost my Dad this year. I read the Bible. I made a cake all by myself. I got married. I went to Italy. I took a bubble bath. I helped out at a soup kitchen once a week. I had my fourth child. I beat cancer.

These yearly inventories are a shock to many people. They are reminders that they did gain thirty pounds, they didn't make it to Hawaii, and they never did get to that book... So they make New Year's Resolutions and plan for a bigger and better year. But most stand disappointed next New Year's.

So this I preach to you... Let's make this the best year yet! Let's actually follow through with our resolutions. Let's get to that book. Let's lose that weight. Let's make a difference in the world around us! The world should be a better place, because we lived. 2010 should be an amazing year, because we took inventory and prepared ourselves for greatness!

What do you say? Are you in? Just think, next December... taking inventory won't be all that disappointing.