By: Detri McGhee
Just about this time every year, most people start looking at a year nearly gone, and the prospects of a new year on the horizon. Even if we don’t want to make those pesky “New Year’s Resolutions,” and would readily admit they probably won’t last anyway, we find ourselves thinking about what needs to change in the coming year.
Well, let’s try something a little different first! Are you game? Get out your trusty pen and paper.
In looking back on 2024, list at least 20 things that went WELL. Twenty things that made you smile, or brought a feeling of accomplishment. They don’t have to be BIG things to be IMPORTANT things. Sometimes they can be things you did for OTHERS that perhaps even cost you a sacrifice of sorts. Challenges met, or successes experienced. Perhaps you learned how to put up with a difficult co-worker and even found they are not so bad after all. Maybe your car DIDN’T break down like it has so many other years. Perhaps your nemesis moved to another job/state. Did you quit biting your fingernails? Has your child started sleeping through the night…at least sometimes? Did your new boots prove surprisingly warm? When that “stupid” driver cut you off, did you offer praise that no wreck occurred? Are you thankful for gloves when the steering wheel is below freezing? No need to stop at 20 if you’re doing well.
Some years it seems I have had to look a little harder for positive affirmations. Sometimes I have discovered that what I thought was a problem was actually a blessing in disguise. But I had to work through the problem to uncover the blessing. Many life-events are mixed with both blessings and problems. Chinese wisdom then comes in handy. The Chinese use symbols for words more than letters…so new words may be made by combining two “word-symbols” to make the new word/thought. Take CRISIS, for instance. It is made of two symbols – one for the word “danger” and the other, the symbol for “opportunity.”
So, a crisis does carry elements of both danger and opportunity. Have you trained yourself to see BOTH the danger and the opportunity present in each of life’s crises? Do you take the situation as it is and think like Jesse Stone (played by Tom Selleck), I will “sift through the words for partial truth”? I have found great benefit from “sifting through” the happening of life and looking for the truths, benefits, blessings, and opportunities in each one.
A NEW YEAR! It’s nearly here. No one knows what it will bring. But I do have a couple of suggestions. 1. Pick your “Word of the Year 2025” and proclaim it daily. I’m vacillating between “Intentional” and “Focus.” (Mmmm…maybe a two-word year lies ahead: Intentional Focus!) 2. Make your NY Resolutions few and far between. Then keep them. 3. Put people ahead of projects. 4. LOOK daily and diligently to define and proclaim your blessings. 5. Exercise, eat smart, drink plenty of water, and smile.
NOW>>>>>>> My challenge is to take my own advice and see how well it works for 2025! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and general blessings to you all!
Detri would love to hear from you! How do you develop your EI? Especially your thoughts on how to handle criticism, or problems you would like to get feedback on from others. Email: detrimcghee@gmail.com or Facebook: Criticism Management by Detri. Free outline for Criticism Management available at www.criticismmanagement.com
By: Detri McGhee -CLU, ChFC
December 20, 2024
