Ralph Waldo Emerson said, " “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely for it is too dear with hopes and opportunities to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”
What Mr. Emerson said is so powerful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of my favorite lessons I have wrote was entitled, An Annual Review With You. At the end of the lesson, I included a poem entitled - Beginnings.
Beginnings
Endings are the seeds to beginnings. Tomorrow will come in time.
Even in hopelessness lies a seed of hope,
And even small seeds can climb.
But the little seed has to give up its past
On its voyage to the sprouting tree
Didn’t you ever transcend your life,
Previous visions of who you could be?
Every cloud opens up to the smiling sun,
And the low will soon reach high tide,
Exits and entrances are at the same gate.
Moving through is your ticket to pride.
And two triangles have to surrender themselves to ever become a square.
And every simple discovery in life makes you give up
What you thought was there
Caterpillars will butterfly off the ground. Give up your past to be king.
Horses run best when not looking back. Let go to reach higher things.
You have to give up your discomforts to ever soar in flight.
But isn’t the end of something that’s wrong
The beginning of something that’s right?
So, you stand at the spot where endings begin,
Handcuffed by the past or freed.
One path will take you to where you have been,
The other will set you free.
So pick yourself up like the rising sun, like the wind lifting the silent sea.
Plant a hope in your heart like a seedling in spring
And step forward to your new destiny.
In that spirit - here's a great set of questions to help you do a Mid Year Review With You - consider it a tune-up for excellence.
Introductory Questions:
1. How would you describe the season of life in which you are now? What are its major opportunities and challenges?
2. Looking back over your life, what have been the main chapters in your story so far?
3. Who are the most influential people and what are the defining events of your life?
4. What do you consider your foremost
-satisfactions and accomplishments?
-failures?
-regrets?
-uncompleted projects and dreams?
Actions: Plan a longer “time out” with sufficient opportunity for solitude, reflection, and appraisal.
Faith:
1. How would you identify yourself in terms of your core faith, view of life, moral standards, and believing community?
2. Would you describe your faith as a private part of your life or as decisive for the whole? Something which has stayed much the same or grown and matured with you over the years? Something purely formal or something as emotionally and intellectually deep as you are?
3. Who are the people and what are the resources through which your faith is regularly challenged to deepen and grow?
4. Do you make a practice of taking “time out to review your journey and reorient your life in light of your faith? What does this mean to you?
Action: Consider one single step that would most help to revitalize and deepen your faith.
Giftedness:
1. What do you consider the core of your God-given Talents?
2. How would you describe the moments in our childhood or in later years when you first realized the satisfaction of expressing your own unique gifts?
3. Do you feel your gifts are recognized and fruitfully employed – or neglected, even wasted – at home? At work? In your community? In your faith community?
4. What are the chief goals you would like to serve with your gifts?
Action: From your talents that have not so far come into play as much as others, consider which one you would like to emphasize at this stage of your life.
Relationships:
1. How would you describe the depth, intimacy and richness of your closest relationships – with your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues?
2. Who are your heroes and mentors in life? What example, inspiration, and challenge do you gain from each? Who are those younger than you for whom you play a mentor/hero role?
3. What regular, practical form do close friends play in your life in terms of fellowship, encouragement, accountability?
4. If your family and friends were asked to describe you in five words, what would those words be? What do you think they would miss?
Action: Put down one thing (for example, an expression of gratitude of an apology) which would most improve one of your closest relationships
Work:
1. Describe how your daily work contributes to a sense of “personal mission” and “life task”. What are the satisfactions and what are the frustrations you experience in your daily activities?
2. What gifts are truly “you” are not brought into play in your job?
3. How much is your sense of identity, status and satisfaction derived from your position and salary? What would be the effect of losing all this tomorrow?
4. What do you see as your sense of calling that links your working life and your life outside work, including retirement, however fare in the future?
Action: Identify one initiative that could improve your work satisfaction, including a possible alternative career track.
Wider Community:
1. What part des the wider community (Neighborhood, city, nation, world) play
in your thinking?
2. Trace the story revealed to you by the ways you spend your time and money. Does this confirm or contradict what you say above?
3. Do you feel a sense of connection and involvement with your faith community and your neighborhood? Why or why not?
4. Describe the part played by your faith community in giving you a sense of the
times in which we live and helping you to participate in wider community affairs.
Action: Consider how you could take your entrepreneurial gifts and use them to contribute to some worthwhile community or nonprofit initiative.
Concluding Questions:
1. What would you say you have accomplished with your life so far?
2. Think back over the dreams, ambitions, and hopes of your youth. How does your present position in life measure up to these?
3. What are the main imbalances in your life that you would like to address?
4. What is the principal legacy you would like to pass on at the end of your life?
Action: Focus on one thing in your like that is missing, wrong, or confused, and decide what to do to improve it.
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