This is the middle of the first of two holiday weeks. This is a good time to pull back a bit, reflect on things from a different perspective. It’s really good that our various religions, cultures and traditions remind us, every once in a while, to slow down and think. Especially this year, which has been a tough one for a lot of us, an especially difficult year for small business, entrepreneurship, economics, health care and politics.

Let’s pause a bit from normal business. Let’s think about what matters most, whatever that is, for each one of us. And then ask whether the way we spend ourselves–time, effort, stress, dreams–matches what’s most important to us.

One thing I’d like to suggest is looking for the common denominators we can all agree on. Like compassion. That ought not to be controversial. Especially during the holidays.

And thank you for reading this blog. I like writing it, and I’m grateful that my readership has grown more than 50 percent this year. Thanks for linking here, thanks for tweeting here, and thanks especially for your comments.

(Photo credit: Winter in Yosemite Valley, by Peter Weber, via Shutterstock)

(This is taken from Let he who is WITH sin cast the first blog, on Planning Startups Stories, which I posted Monday.)


Tim BerryTim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.