Instead of New Year's Resolutions

I once heard that most people quit their New Year’s resolutions by January 4. I don’t know for certain whether that statistic is true, but it sure does reflect my own experience.

I love the fresh start of a new year, the chance to begin again, to hit a reset button. I get energized by thoughts of what I might accomplish in the next year, and I find a sudden burst of energy to plan and organize. Until somewhere around January 4.

Checking off a list of new habits loses its steam and disappears along with the packed-up Christmas decorations.

So this year, instead of New Year’s resolutions, I did a Year in Review. I examined the underlying meaning of events and experiences in the last year. Then I did some thinking about how to create more of those best experiences in 2019.

If you’re someone who finds it helpful to make and keep resolutions, please get started on your list with my full support. But if you’re like me, and need a little something different, here’s how I did my Year in Review. Feel free to use whatever of this process is most helpful to you.

Step One: Write down key events or experiences. You’ll likely need a large space like a dry erase board. I went through my calendar from January to December to help remind me what happened. I defined “key” events or experiences as anything that left some sort of impression, memory or meaning, and they included everything from particular client meetings to family vacations, from contract acquisitions to friend’s birthday parties.

Step Two: Sit back with a warm beverage and look over what happened in 2018. Here are some reflection questions you can use to guide your thinking.

• What sorts of things did you learn or figure out in these events?
• What patterns or connections do you notice?
• What might those patterns mean?
• What mattered most to you in the last year? What was most important and why?
• What do you want to do now?
• What do you need to put in place to make that happen?
• Who do you need to include?

Whatever you do to mark the end of one year and the start of another, may you have a 2019 full of meaning and purpose.

Celia King helps leaders find their meaning and purpose as the Lead Consultant at Arrants McSwain Team Building