As 2006 comes to a close, it is time to take a moment and reflect on the things you experienced during the year. In this rush, rush life, many people fail to do take this important step.

Finding Inspiration in Your 2006 Experiences

The end of the year is as good a time as any to reflect upon your life. The 12 month period of time is a nice cookie cutter span in which you can encapsulate your accomplishments and failures. Both of these are important to both learning and gaining inspiration for 2007. Many people look back and only focus on the good or bad, not both. This is a mistake because it either gives you to rosy or bleak of a picture.

Unfortunately, many people tend to focus on the problems and difficulties they experienced in a year, so let’s start there. When considering 2006, where did you fall down and skin your knees? Be honest. Make a list of the areas where things just didn’t go right. While this may sound dour, stop and think about those events. Yes, they didn’t go well, but did they go as badly as you might have feared at the time? More importantly, have you moved beyond them? If so, you should note the lesson of time. What seems like a disaster today often is a small footnote a few months later. You should take inspiration from this and learn not to overact to problems. You should also think about how you would have handled things differently and incorporate those thoughts into your life. Remember, the definition of “experience” is learning from your mistakes.

Turning to the positive, you should make a list of your accomplishments for 2006. Congratulations! If you take the time to make a thorough review, you probably have a longer list than you thought. This should inspire you. Look at how much you accomplished! Now, give some thought to why you accomplished these things. Was there some underlying theme to what you did? If so, you should keep this theme close at hand. Map out what you want to achieve in 2007. How will you apply your theme to these goals? Just like learning from your failures, you need to also learn from your accomplishments.

When reviewing 2006, it is important that you keep a balanced eye on your achievements and failures. Do not focus on one to the exclusion of the other. Learn from your failures and find inspiration in the many things you accomplished!

Bruno Baceli
www.InspirationDaily.com