The Best Way To End The Year

12/13/2017

How are you going to know how your year went if you don’t sit down and review it? Take, at the most, one hour of one day during the last few days of the year, and focus on what truly happened for you during the last twelve months. You’re going to be surprised with what you find.

At about the end of the year we tend to analyze how the past twelve months went for us. But instead of focusing on what we said we were going to do and we didn’t, let’s do something more positive. Let’s review the year and focus on the great things we did do.

I know this year has been very intense to many, and in many ways. But it’s also been very healing, eye opening and empowering. Keep this in mind when reviewing this year that’s about to end.

The plans you had

I know by experience that we tend to beat ourselves up when we don’t accomplish things we said we wanted to accomplish by a certain length of time. But, by doing this we overshadow the wonderful things we did do that were not part of our plan for the year but still were wonderful things that helped our overall growth.

At the end of last year I had many good plans for this year that's about to end. I set out to do things that just didn’t happen as I wanted, but so many other plans came along that I had not seen I needed to accomplish beforehand. I accomplished those goals and now I feel more prepared to go for what I originally wanted. To me this still qualifies as a very successful year.

What about you? Did you have any plans for this year that’s ending? Did those plans happened? If those plans happened, awesome! If not, then you were probably being prepared for them. Don’t be discouraged, I’m sure you’re better prepared for them now than you were a year ago.

What did you accomplish?

Take thirty minutes or one hour today, or in the next few days, to review your year. Think about the things you accomplished, planned or not, that were meaningful and important for your growth, and write them down. I’m sure you’re going to find way more things than what you thought you accomplished; it happened to me. Yes, we tend to underestimate ourselves.

Now that you have a list of at least three meaningful accomplishments take a minute or two to savor the feeling of success and fulfillment. You need to allow yourself to feel this moment for two main reasons: so you give closure to the year that’s about to end, and so you have the feeling of success and fulfillment recorded in your memory bank forever.

Right after that, have a little moment of celebration. I think we should always allow ourselves to celebrate even the most minor accomplishments that are meaningful to us. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Sometimes just taking a few minutes to bask on the good feeling of success and fulfillment are enough.

How are you going to know how your year went if you don’t sit down and review it? Take time to see what truly happened for you during the last twelve months. You’re going to be surprised. See how here.

What plans do you have for next year?

Knowing that there is a possibility that your plans will not be accomplished should not deter you from wanting to set up new ones. Don’t know what to plan for? If you have an idea of what you want for yourself in this life begin there and pick three items that you know you can work on this coming year.

Why three? So you don’t feel overwhelmed. If you can accomplish more, go right ahead. I just don’t want you to get frustrated if you plan for five or more things and you could only accomplish three. I totally understand you have many other responsibilities and you have to balance them all.

So, keep it to three items for now. Besides, if you accomplish your three items of the year, you’ll be able to take on more and those will be considered as bonuses. Imagine the greater feeling of accomplishment, success and fulfillment you’ll experience as you accomplish more than your initial goal.

And if you have no idea of what you want from life, maybe it's time to start thinking about it. I'm sure there are many things you want to accomplish, begin by doing what interests you, what sounds fun, what feels good to you and see where it takes you. I assure you you're going to like it.

Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." –Carl Bard

We have to understand that we cannot see the entire range of possibilities that exist for our lives, which are many. This is what makes life so exciting. If we already knew how everything was going to turn out, we would be bored.

Do you already know what plans you want for your life and New Year? Tell me then, What are the three things you want to accomplish this coming year?

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Claudia LeBaron Islas

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