Start Smart by Looking Backwards
By: David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer

I love this time of year for many reasons. I just love the Holidays! I begin listening to Christmas music in mid-November. Thanksgiving is such a beautiful time with family gatherings and a sense of gratitude for the many blessings we have in our lives. People seem to be a bit more kind and friendly. As we move from November into December the decorations begin to go up, the beautiful poinsettias fill our homes, and the greeting cards begin to arrive. At our home, the refrigerator doors become a mosaic of cards from friends and family from near and far. There is the concert at Hendricks Chapel, Symphoria’s Holiday Pops concert and Lights on the Lake. At our Church, there will be Christmas programs and Caroling. The family will once again gather around our table for wonderful food and great conversation. At some point, however, in the middle of this wonder, I will slip away and spend some time alone. I will take some time and reflect on the year that is quickly slipping into the history books.

There are those who say that experience is the best teacher. Sadly, they are very wrong. If experience were the best teacher, every old person would be filled with wisdom and able to accomplish just about anything. Now don’t get me wrong, in many cases those whose hair has been made white with experience are very wise, but they are wise because of they took the time to reflect on what they were experiencing and turned the experience into insight while the others simply lived the same old year over and over again.

This year I heard about a new way to reflect. A mentor of mine with the John Maxwell Team shared that he reviews the pictures that he took throughout the year. He looks at each picture, thinks about who he was with, where he was, and what he was doing. He makes notes and color codes the notes in green for something he would want to do again, yellow if it was okay, and red if he would rather not do that again. He has used this practice for several years, and he has seen that over time, the red had almost disappeared and there is much more green. Wow, imagine having our years filled with the things we love doing. Well, we can begin moving in that direction if we reserve some precious time for year-end reflection.

Please join Marisa and me on The Next Page podcast as we look at other ways to reflect on the year that is passing so the experiences we made can become insight for 2018.

Download The Next Page Here: iTunes // Google Play // PodBean