12/9/2022

A New Focus

Make the holidays a time to celebrate the past and present – not to think about what’s to come

Make the holidays a time to celebrate the past and present – not to think about what’s to come

It’s hard to believe that another year is almost over. As we continue through the holiday season, our focus is typically on what’s still to come. We talk about the next family get-together, the next work party, and the next gift we need to buy. After that, we think about New Year’s Eve and our goals for the New Year. At Team Montani, we want you to not just celebrate what’s coming next, but to take time to look back on how far you’ve come and celebrate the accomplishments of the past year.

Personally, I tend to always look forward and focus on the task ahead. Even after getting engaged, my fiancé and I celebrated for a while before beginning wedding planning. Looking back on it, we didn’t take the time to really appreciate or live in that moment because we knew we had more to do in the future. We wish it could’ve been different.

The people who taught me the importance of looking back and appreciating the journey are my two nephews. My older nephew turned three late in the summer, and the younger nephew just celebrated his first birthday. When I think about the last year and look back to this time in 2021, the older of the two was basically a different baby, and the younger one was just born. In 12 months, so much has changed between walking, running, talking, personality development, and telling us about school days. They’re entirely different people – and these last 12 months have brought changes that’ll last forever.

There’s no second chance to see a child’s first steps or hear their first words. These are moments we should appreciate forever. There’ll always be a new goal to strive for or a new task at hand. When one project is finished, we’ll move on to the following spot on the to-do list. When I look back at 2022, I remember those little moments with my nephews as the successes of the year – not the number of loans we closed or projects we finished. This holiday season, we encourage you to look back and reflect on what you’ve seen and done and remember those moments that will last forever.

Happy holidays!

-Nick Marino