FROM GOOD OLE UNCLE VIC

February 2007

   Hey guys, how are you? Well, it took until the end of January but winter is finally here. As that dude said when John Belisle and I were waiting for that bus that day in 1972, "Cold out here on Bladensburg Road!"

   No trivia question last month. Instead I asked for people to list their New Year's Resolutions on my blog. To see what people wrote, go to www.BrickBodies.com and click on my blog in the drop-down box under About Us. Feel free to add your own.

   This week's trivia question, a little culture. Who did Shakespeare call "the noblest Roman of them all"?

   My New Year's Resolution is to practice equanimity. What is equanimity? Evenness of mind. Calmness of mind. Composure. Boy, do I need it. No more road rage when people cut me off in traffic. No more making people feel inadequate when they ask me what I consider a silly question. No more getting irritated when people don't hear what I say the first time, or even the second time. Easier said than done? Of course. But obtainable? Maybe not 100% but certainly better than I do now.

   Actually, equanimity is the new buzzword for our whole company. No more getting frazzled when people don't agree with you. No more losing your cool when people interrupt what you are doing or fail to respond to you in a timely fashion. No more subtle sarcasm when someone asks the same thing twice. As a matter of fact, we are taking equanimity so seriously that if someone loses his/her cool in another associate's presence, all the other associate has to do is say the word "equanimity" and the offender has to drop down and do 20 push-ups! We have already had two people do push-ups at staff meetings!

   My whole family has to work on equanimity. My son, Jon, is playing basketball for the Citadel. They are having an up-and-down year. A vast improvement over last year, to be sure, but the expectations are also much higher so the losses are harder to take. I am constantly telling Jon to practice equanimity. As Dean Smith, the Hall-of-Fame coach from North Carolina used to say, "If winning is life and death, you will be dead a lot!"

   This from a guy who, until last month, was the winningest college coach of all time.

   My daughter, Vicki, is back from playing professional basketball in Australia. She is working for us now. She gets all worked up if her sales are down or if the members are unhappy about anything in the club. While this is good to a certain degree, you cannot get too upset about it. Equanimity!

   Lynne and I work together. We are always in each other's face. She has a pretty face, to be sure but sometimes it is tough to spend so much time together. Nerves do get a little frayed and tempers do run a little short. (Hers, not mine, of course!) Equanimity!

   Actually, equanimity is nothing more than choosing your own attitude. Nothing can really get you upset unless you allow it to. The bottom line is, it is not what happens to you so much as how you react to it. And the plain fact of the matter is that most "crises" are insignificant in the large scope of things.

   So my New Year's Resolution is to choose my own attitude, and I chose equanimity. And not just for this year, but from this time forward. I will count to ten. I will take a deep breath. I will think "what would Coach Wooden (Hall of fame UCLA basketball coach) do? I will try to keep it in perspective. I will chill and relax. And I will try to maintain my cool. And I will inevitably fail. But I will fail less and less until it will become a habit instead of a challenge.

   Yep, equanimity. That's my goal. So if you see me chanting a mantra, you will know what I am doing; trying to maintain my cool because something has upset me, and I am trying to maintain equanimity. Wish me luck!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY