- the parties were celebrated

- the off-days subsided

- the interest rate on 'real life' compounded

Financial underpinning is slightly on purpose - ok very - it's the rainbow-coloured elephant in the room!!  There is no country that isn't in some fashion, stomped by this economy. 

Now that I've bummed everyone out, it is said "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going." 

Well to a degree, I agree.  Being tough cookies can be award-winning, inspirational stuff. 

But may I offer perhaps a different personal opinion (activate mental yoga here): 

When the cookies get tough, we examine the dough. 

During tough economic times, instead of throwing our heads and bills against the wall, it can be a time of reflection: what REALLY makes us happy?  In Yoga, there is a philosophy of Santosa - Contentment.  Benjamin Franklin said, "Who is rich? He that is content."  Ironically, with a little inventory, this can be the richest times of our lives.

It is during these questionable times that I REALLY fell in love with my work again.  When I look long enough, that hand-me-down furniture is starting to look pretty ghetto-fabulous.  Because yoga isn't just physical and because I love you, let February be a reflective time of changing the ingredients of our dough (pun shamelessly intended) by:

- re-evaluating what we need versus what we want

- re-assessing what true wealth means to us personally

- re-committing to become the best ____ we work everyday to be

So may February bring us real success, not by being tough cookies. 

But by being smart cookies.