Reflections on 2016 and a look ahead

We all have different feelings about the holiday season. Depending on your perspective, it can either be a treasured opportunity to spend time with family or a stressful month and a half of frantic cooking, cleaning and shopping—or even both at the same time!

But wherever you stand on the holiday love/hate continuum, one thing we all have in common is that this time of year tends to inspire at least a little reflection. Did I meet my fitness goals this year? Was I a better parent? Did I advance my career? Self-assessment is only natural at the end of a year, so I’m guessing these sorts of thoughts are pretty universal right about now.

And while I notoriously never make new year's resolutions (because trying to force your life to go exactly right just never quite seems to work), I’m incredibly proud of the Jelmar team and its accomplishments. In the past year, I’ve used this blog as an opportunity to share some of my favorite experiences at Jelmar, from connecting with customers through our rebranding, to celebrating our "greenvenient" product line, to our proud history as a third-generation family business.

Admittedly, one calendar year—12 months—is a pretty arbitrary time frame in the grand scheme of our lives if you really think about it. But these self-imposed beginnings and endings serve as both the yardstick by which we measure our progress and the motivation for our future growth. Because the best thing about an ending, of course, is that it enables us to begin again.

So before this year comes to a end, I’d like to take a moment to look ahead to 2017. We’ll continue sharing stories on issues that matter to Jelmar—such as caring for our environment, empowering family businesses, and encouraging more women and girls to seek out leadership roles. You’ll hear from a broader range of voices and perspectives than ever before, and you’ll get to know even more about what makes Jelmar truly unique. It’s going to be an exciting year.

Happy holidays from the Jelmar family, and we’ll see you in January 2017!