Looking Back and Looking Ahead

We're ten days from the end of the year and from the end of the decade. It's hard to believe, but in less than two weeks, another ten years will be gone. I don't know about you, but it seems to me like it was a few days ago we were worrying about Y2K (remember that?) and now we're getting ready to welcome 2010. So as the year comes to a close it's time for taking stock.

Ask most people about New Year's and they'll tell you that it's a time when they set new goals and look ahead to the future. While many people never bother to set goals and make plans, almost everyone engages in the exercise of setting resolutions. While I'm all in favour of setting New Year's Resolutions, this week I want to focus on someone that is most often overlooked but potentially even more important, looking back.

Looking back isn't about regrets and dwelling on our mistakes, it's about taking stock of where we've been as a way to guide us toward where we want to be. The end of a year is a great time to take stock of what you've accomplished over the past 365 days, take a deeper look at the challenges you faced, and most importantly, the lessons you've learned. In this case, we get to look back at a whole decade, so there's lots to be gleaned if we'll just take the time to look. Here is some of my lists:

2000's Accomplishments:

• Told I was going to die, faced the challenge head on without ever giving up hope
• Survived a life-saving Heart-Lung Transplant
• Took myself from zero fitness level to a marathon finish line.
• Ran 3 marathons and 4 half marathons
• Wrote and published my book
• Re-planned my life and discovered a new career path
• Started my own business
• Spoke to 50,000 people in over 100 presentations
• Met and married my wife
• Had our first child Emma
• Bought our first, and then our second house

2000's Challenges:

• Told I may die at 23
• Lived in a hospital bed for 6 months
• Broke up with my first serious girl friend
• Dealt with depression on and off throughout
• Developed anxiety disorder
• Realized I couldn't be a teacher like I'd planned

2000's Lessons Learned:

• You never lose unless you give up
• You can beat anything with enough determination, endurance and optimism
• However bad something may be, there are always lessons to be learned from it
• What doesn't kill you really does make you stronger
• Anything can be accomplished with big vision, self-confidence and dogged determination
• As long as you have family and friends nothing else much matters

I hope you enjoyed my lists, but more importantly, I hope that they encourage you to make your own. In the next ten days, set aside a little time to take inventory of where you've been this past decade. See what you learn. It can be a very helpful tool to take you to the next level in your professional and personal life.

Faith - You Gotta' Believe

If there is a universal key to success it is faith. The belief that one will succeed is essential to achieving whatever goals one might have. So I thought at this time of year, when children provide a great example of faith in the form of their belief in a big man with a red suit, it would be a good time to discuss this success principal.

To achieve anything in life, you must first believe it is possible. In fact, I dare say that you have never realized a goal that you didn't first believe you could accomplish (even if that belief was shadowed with some doubts). At it's most basic level, we all accept this principal. We know that we'll never be a good parent, wife, husband etc. we must have at least a basic faith that we are capable of being that person. We know we'll fall down, we know we'll fall short, but we must also know we are capable. However, for some reason, despite being able to have faith in ourselves when it comes to fundamental abilities, we so often fail to have faith in ourselves to do extraordinary things, when it is exactly at the time that we attempt those things when faith is most critical.

Start working on your faith. You Can Do Anything. Period. The sooner you can make this a core belief, the sooner you will meet with success.

Finding Contentment

Eight years ago I found myself in a hospital bed waiting for a miracle to save my life. I was on the heart-lung transplant waiting list, unsure of how, or even if, my life would continue. I was blessed to have family and friends to support me along the way but it was still a tough situation.

In the years since that time, many people asked me how it felt to have my life "on hold". To them, I wasn't really living, I was just "on hold". I wasn't really living. But they were wrong. During that six months I learned one of the most important lessons of my life, that happiness isn't found in what you do, how much you have, or don't have, or even if you're healthy (in fact I was very, very, sick) happiness comes from being able to find contentment wherever you are. Happiness comes from cultivating appreciation, especially for the little things.

While in hospital for six months, I learned to cultivate an appreciation for time with family, card games, the perfect meal. In other words, I learned to enjoy life's simple pleasures.It wasn't that I didn't still have goals and dreams; I most certainly did. But instead of needing those things in order to be happy, I realized that I could cultivate happiness right where I was, sick in a hospital bed. My happiness was not dependent on a set of conditions. I learned to just BE.

This holiday, strive to avoid getting caught up in ensuring that every details is perfect. Don't get overly stressed that this or that isn't "just right". Instead take the time to savour the moments. Enjoy your time with family and friends. Sing carols, have great conversations, play fun games and take it all in. This, after all, is what life is all about. Next year you won't remember if the stuffing was perfect or the bow didn't match the paper on one of your gifts. What you'll remember is the time you spent with people you care about. You'll remember the little things.

Have a blessed and merry Christmas. Just remember to slow down enough to take it in.