Celebrating Your Highs and Lows: A Reflection on the Past Year

At the end of the year, I find it to be a good practice to reflect back on the past year – both the highs and the lows. Many times, I’ll see various business owners celebrating their wins (which is something I wholeheartedly support) or simply putting the past year behind and moving on to what’s next. I’ve noticed that it’s quite rare, however, for business owners to actively recognize both the highs and lows from the previous year.

Honestly, I think this is a mistake. Without knowing what went right and what went wrong, it’s impossible to take an objective look at why you reached (or exceeded) certain goals and why others fell short.

It’s also something that I believe you should train your team to do, both as a part of their self-evaluation of their job performance and as a part of setting their personal and professional goals. When this is presented as growth and development (rather than as micromanaging), it can actually be a significant part of developing an innovative, loyal, and collaborative team.

This isn’t always an easy process, though – especially when you already have a lot on your plate. Here are some tips to help you get started!

Celebrating Your Highs

It’s important to acknowledge and celebrate your wins! This comes easily for some people – and for others, it’s quite the challenge. This is an important practice for a few different reasons, though.

First, building a profitable, thriving business is a marathon. Along the way, you’re going to trip, and you’re going to get winded. At times, you’ll even feel like stepping back or giving up.

Actively realizing how far you’ve come and celebrating the wins along the way will give you the perspective and motivation to not give up when things get tough.

In addition, however, it’s also important for your team to understand what they’re helping you build and to realize the impact they’re helping you make. Whether they crave the praise (and need it to be at their best) or have no idea how to celebrate their own wins, taking the time to lead them through this process is essential for their growth and yours.

There is also another thing to consider, however: gaining the right perspective.

Many business owners are high performing and very competitive individuals – it just comes with the territory. We have huge goals, and we love the strategy and process of achieving them.

It is possible for us, however, to get to the point where we are so focused on the goals ahead that we forget to step back and recognize how far we’ve come. We allow ourselves to “fall into the gap” of focusing only on what is still just out of arms reach that we lose the perspective of understanding what we have already accomplished.

This, in turn, causes burnout and tunnel vision – neither of which will lead to growth.

By becoming intentional about regularly celebrating your (and your team’s) wins, you will do a lot to move the needle forward and help to prevent burnout!

Recognizing Your Lows

As high-performing, competitive people, acknowledging lows and losses is not something that comes naturally to us. These are things we would often rather forget and move past.

I propose looking at it a different way: recognize that failure is going to happen and set a goal of getting it out of the way quickly so you can learn from it and move forward.

Failure and low points are not something to be feared; rather, they’re something you should quickly identify, understand, and grow from. In a way, they’re something you should welcome. They mean you are taking chances, innovating, and purposefully taking steps to grow.

This should be a time of reflection, rather than a time to beat up on yourself (or anyone else) for something that didn’t succeed. You tried something new, and it didn’t work: why? What can you take away from it? Will you try it again in the future, perhaps with some changes, or will you scrap it all together?

What can be done better? What needs to be refined? What insights can your team members bring, looking at the issue from their own perspectives?

These are all questions that can propel you and your company forward, and they’re opportunities to bring your team further into the process. Failure is never a fun thing, but it can be a catalyst for growth!

Remember: we fail our way to success, and we’re going to experience both. It is just as important to celebrate the lowlights that taught us essential lessons as it is to celebrate our wins – both elements are vital for growth!