How To Realise You’ve Had a Good Year – Even if it Doesn’t Feel Like it.

Entrepreneurs

At any time of the year it’s easy to feel that you aren’t where you think you should be. Perhaps you didn’t stick to your resolutions or make the changes you promised you would. Perhaps life’s events threw you a curve ball that changed your direction. But regret or anger at yourself isn’t productive. It’s a better strategy to look back and focus on what went well for you.

This reflection creates an opportunity to celebrate how far you have come and to realign yourself with your goals on the cusp of a new year.

A few years ago I got up early to go walking on the beach. I said to myself, “I’ll walk to the headland and back, that will take about an hour.”

So I fixed my gaze on the horizon and started off. It was a pleasurable walk but after about 30 minutes I started to get frustrated. You see, I wasn’t getting anywhere – the headland on the horizon was just as far away as when I started off.

I had to get back so I stopped and turned around. To my absolute surprise I couldn’t see where I had started from – I had come so far! It was only because I stopped and looked back that I was able to see how far I had come.

Even if your life didn’t go quite as planned this year, by taking a more reflective look, you’ll quite probably realise that even though it may not feel like it, you’re more on track than you thought.

Here are 7 signs you actually had a great year:

1. You’ve opened your heart by showing more of your true self to those around you.
2. You took some risks, even though you were a bit (or a lot) fearful. Despite the outcome, you know you did what was right for you.
3. You might have fallen a bit short of certain goals, but you’re actually OK with that, because of who you’ve become in the process.
4. You’ve focused more on what you wanted than on what you didn’t want.
5. You’re no longer insistent on needing to know all the answers or control the outcome. You don’t try to force anything but instead you enjoy the adventure of the journey.
6. You constantly focus on your personal “Big Why” and the reasons for doing things, rather than the results you currently see.
7. You’ve stopped comparing yourself to others (or have at least made progress with this) because you are more comfortable with who you’ve become.