MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

AUTHOR*

Scott Stillman

What goes into making a New Year’s resolution that is set up to succeed? For me, I’ve found it’s most helpful to reflect on the year that just passed before turning to resolutions for the year ahead. There are so many lessons to learn from the prior year, but we miss them entirely if we don’t take the time to reflect.

One strategy for reflection goes like this: create two columns, one for "highlights" and the other for "lowlights." Then, think back through each month from the past year and try to identify the people, activities or commitments that brought you joy (highlights) or produced a negative emotion (lowlights). To better remember what happened, it can help to review your calendar or photos. Once your list has identified the people or moments that produced highlights, start figuring out how to get more of those people or events on your schedule for the upcoming year. And you’ll also know to avoid scheduling those lowlights.