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Year End 2017; Conducting Your Personal Review

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As 2017 comes to a quick close, I am sure many of you are consumed with the typical December activities; finishing out the semester, finalizing your year-end reporting, making preparations for the trip home… and then there’s the holiday shopping for Christmas and Hanukah. Yikes! What an exhausting time of the year this can be.

However, as you get past the mania of December, have you thought about doing a personal year-end review? Perhaps a few of you have, but for most of us, probably not. Let me suggest a very simple method that may prove to be invaluable.

BEST & WORST

Many evenings around the MacDonald dinner table (not the golden arches!), we take turns sharing our “best” and “worst” of the day. Our two boys (4 and 6) always provide hilarious entertainment, often creating other categories, sharing their “happiest” and “silliest” moments of their day. It not only makes for great dinner conversation, but actually proves to be a healthy way to do a quick reflection of our day.

While there are many ways to do a year-end review, I suggest you use this “best” and “worst” method; it’s simple, draws out great insights and provides a potential path forward into 2018.

REVIEWING YOUR 2017 – BEST, WORST & LESSONS LEARNED

I suggest finding a quiet place, at a time of day that your mind and soul are sharp (for me, it’s early morning). Grab your 2017 calendar and begin reviewing the year, month by month; your business/school activities, as well as your personal/family/social activities.

Next, simply list out the months January through December, and write out your best and worst experience or accomplishment for each month. If you want to categorize by business and personal, go for it, but keep it simple.

For some it will be an accomplishment, for others a relational moment with a good friend, or experiencing new food, visiting a new place, or hearing from friends or family back home.

Take a minute to think through each of these experiences. What made them your best? Your worst? Briefly write out the lesson learned from each.

Once you’ve completed all 12 months, go back and number your top three “bests” and your top three “worsts”.

WRITING A NEW SCRIPT FOR 2018

With your best and worst of 2017 in hand, begin to think forward to the year ahead. What do you want more of? Less of? What can you do to be intentional on both fronts?

Many of us have histories of laying out New Year’s resolutions that seemingly begin to dissolve towards the end of January, and go unfulfilled. But take another look at your Bests and Worsts from 2017; your lessons learned. Why not make 2018 truly a new year? Who says you have to live out the same old script?

Write out three very practical ways you can increase your Best experiences, and three ways not to repeat your Worst experiences. Connect in with what matters most in each category of your life; business, family, learning, your faith, etc. Begin to write the script for what you want your life to be about in 2018. The Best is yet to come!

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