'Tis the season. Every year, as I start getting the “early bird” of holiday cards, it always feels too soon. According to the calendar, and the weather, it’s clearly nearly the end of the year, but it feels like time has passed way too quickly. There’s still a lot to do before closing out the year.
As I approach the end of each year, I have a long-standing habit to look back at the past year and what I can learn from it. I believe that goal-setting is a key element of personal and professional growth, but only when goal progress and achievements are reviewed on a regular basis. In December, as we stand on the threshold of a new year, it's an opportune moment to pause and conduct a year-end reflection. This time of year, provides a natural pause to look back at the past year, evaluate accomplishments, challenges, and personal growth as well as set intentions and goals for the coming year with a clearer understanding of current standings.
Throughout any given year, there will be both positive and negative experiences, struggles and triumphs, and setbacks and successes. While my aspiration is to remain objective as I celebrate the highs and reflect on the lows, if I am honest, my tendency is to look at my accomplishments very briefly, without really paying close attention to the details, while examining every element of the things I perceive as “failures” very closely. Yes, this kind of reflection can be a gold mine of insight to build for better in the coming year. However, fixating on a “success-failure” or “achieved-not achieved” binary classifications will result in a narrow and limited understanding of the goal achievement process, which is nuanced and multi-layered. Achieving a desired outcome is not always a straightforward process, and there are often complexities, different perspectives, and various factors to consider beyond just hitting a target. Success is multifaceted. Measuring success must include understanding the context, the obstacles, the potential, and the growth along the way.
And yet, I am stuck on the one that got away – the goal not completed. No, I didn’t finish that third book. Most experts advise that the best time to finish and publish a book is early fall, right in time for the holiday season when people are more likely to pick up new reads, especially self-improvement and business books for goal setting and new year’s resolutions. It’s December, and I am still in the midst of the editing process.
Failure? Yes, but.
I have made significant progress on all three books I am writing concurrently. I have met my brand awareness social media content creation goal. I maintained a thriving coaching practice. I ran a half marathon in 10 states and hiked 2 long treks. And I managed a busy social calendar. So, all in all, it has been a productive year.
There is a lot of subtlety that gets lost in the gray area between “done” and “not yet.” As 2024 draws to a close, I encourage you to take this opportunity to reflect—on both the big wins and the big strides. The act of reflection is both meditative and cathartic. It is a chance to reconnect with your memories of the past year and decide what makes the list of highlights in your highlight reel. It also gives you a chance to sort through the things still left unattained, unattended, un-dared, undone, and unsaid. I have found this exercise to be extremely valuable because it's a reminder that the days are long and the years are short. Consider writing a year in review. It may not feel like much now, but your future self will thank you for preserving those memories.
This year, take a new approach: think through the days gone by not looking for failings and flaws, but looking for perspective and potential. Growth is in striving, not arriving. The true process of personal development and progress lies in the continuous effort and pursuit of goals, rather than simply reaching a destination or achieving a single milestone. Thus, if you define your desired destination as the ultimate source of joy and fulfillment, you’d be limiting the richness of the experience and will miss out on the valuable learning, enjoyment, and growth that can happen during the process itself. Going forward, see goal setting as a direction, not a destination. Define meaning as the journey toward self-growth. Rather than focusing on the destination (goal-achievement), focus on the process of exploration and discovery (personal growth.)
As you reflect back on 2024, recognize all that you have learned and the ways you have grown over the past year. Leverage your wisdom to launch yourself into the new year. Think about the areas in which you’d like to continue growing and improving in 2025 in order to become an improved version of yourself. Whatever the goal, it never defines you, or your self-worth and value. What counts is the commitment to go through the process of “becoming.” It’s a journey of endeavor, failures, endurance, learning, and growing. To realize new possibilities, you need to be ready, willing, and able to embark on a journey of self-discovery. This holiday season, give yourself the gift of the journey of self-discovery.
May you keep striving forward on a path full of choices to develop, improve, and grow!
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