by Karen Kahn

In your zeal to put the year behind you or, spring into great new possibilities, you may find yourself already thinking about 2015. I encourage you to wait a moment—there’s an important step to take in order to create a fabulous foundation for what will be: gather the lessons learned from what was. Whether it was a year that defied your expectations or left you in a hole of frustration, reflecting on all that occurred and identifying the will enable you to build upon your experiences and propel forward.

Here are professional questions I ponder:

1. What were the highlights of the year in terms of relationships, business acquired, events attended and other accomplishments?
2. What about the above feels positive?
3. What, specifically, did I do that enabled the above to occur in such a positive way?
4. What relationships, business possibilities, events or other causes me to feel most disappointed about the past year?
5. What did I expect in each instance and what actually occurred?
6. What could I have done differently in order to achieve a more positive outcome?
7. If the answer is “nothing” meaning, I did all that I could, what conclusion(s) can I make about my effort and result?
8. What were my most significant challenges?
9. What did I do well to meet these challenges? What do I wish I had done differently?
10. What opportunities did I not take the most advantage of?
11. What hindered my engagement of potential opportunities?
12. As I look back over 2014, in what ways am I most proud of myself?
13. What was most fulfilling this year in terms of the activities and people that I most enjoyed and would love being involved with more?

These questions take time to answer comprehensively. You might want to answer them over several days, adding to the responses as the questions percolate. Asking someone who knows you well his/her responses to the questions can add further depth to the exercise. I find it enlightening to hear how someone else observed me and the terrain I crossed during the year.

Finally, pull your reflections together in a summary of lessons learned. I suggest a list of 10 key points that summarize your responses to the above and answer this: how will all of the various experiences in 2014 make you wiser and more capable to embrace the ups and downs that 2015 will inevitably bring into your life?

My next blog post will build upon this one. I will discuss ways to use these core lessons to set the foundation for success, fulfillment and fun in 2015.