As the New Year approaches, it is natural to want to focus on plans for the future, changes that we’d like to make, and hopes for improvement in ourselves, our community, and the rest of the world.
That’s great! A forward looking mindset keeps us open to growth and change. The process of looking ahead, however, is not incompatible with the notion of stopping and reflecting on the past year, and benefitting from that reflection.
Some very successful people have been know to actually take one or more days off at the end of the year and devote an exclusive block of time to looking back – with a purpose.
The process of reflecting enables us to see how well we met our defined goals for the year and to also see what we accomplished without preplanning. We can see what things we set out to do but didn’t get accomplished – and deciding whether they are worth carrying over for next year or did they prove to be relatively unimportant? How do we redefine ourselves based upon what we’ve learned?
One of the questions that I ask new patients is, “When was the best time of your life and what made it so?” I think that a similar question is a great one to ask at the end of the year to determine what were the best times of the past year for you? What did you to make that time so successful? And what can you do to replicate that success in other areas.
An honest period of reflection can help us be more effective in building upon our strengths and confronting our weaknesses as we implement those strategies that are under our control for making the coming year the best year ever.
Happy New Year, Everyone!