January is the most despicable month on the calendar for me. Not only is it bitter cold, it is a month to gather tax information and determine the ending value of my retail inventory. It is essential to maintain adequate levels throughout the year to fulfill orders; but at year’s end, the unsold inventory becomes a tax liability and no one wants that.

Retail businesses try to forecast what items will turn a quick profit so warehouse shelves are empty on December 31. It’s a great concept in theory, but NOT in reality!  Just about the time I am ready to close-out a slow-moving item, customer interest spikes; and I am forced to increase inventory levels to keep up with the demand. And then, customers again lose interest and I’m left with inventory I can’t sell.

What excess inventory do you need to unload?

As the first month of a new year, January is an ideal time to take inventory of those things in our life that aren’t profitable and take up valuable space.  When you look at the spreadsheet of your life, what do you see? Did last year bring significant growth, did you break even; or, face liabilities because you failed to unload excess inventory?

It is no secret that every asset has a liability and every liability has an asset. So if every good has a bad and every bad has a good, it should all balance out in the end.  In the finance world this is true, but the balance sheet of ‘life’ is not that simple, if it were, we would all be happy.  

When life’s liabilities outweigh the assets, it’s time to unload excess inventory and restore balance to the spreadsheet of our life.

Here are ten helpful tips to minimalize life’s liabilities:

• ·         Forgive, life is too short.
• ·         Bag up past failures and toss them in a dumpster.
• ·         Attach wrong choices to arrows and shoot them into infinity.
• ·         Live life for you, not the approval of others. Give yourself permission to disappoint people.
• ·         When faced with a crisis, remain calm and follow the yellow brick road. Even Dorothy faced obstacles, but managed to find her way home.
• ·         Say goodbye to vampire friendships that suck the life and energy out of you.
• ·         Strive to move within God’s will, not your own. To assume you know better than God will put you in the ‘red’ every time.
• ·         Awareness is great, but action is required if you want to overcome.
• ·         Discontentment that lingers will eventually erode joy.
• ·         Less stuff means fewer things to weigh you down.