It only feels like yesterday that we were all bracing for Y2K and the new millennium – that was 10 years ago!!!
I’ve learned through many life lessons that it is important to acknowledge the end of something before moving onto something new. Graduating from high school and leaving home to go to university meant my life under my parent’s roof was coming to an end and I was stepping into independent living (except for the odd weekend home for Mom to cook and do laundry!).
Society marks many of these occasions with celebrations to mark their significance – bridal showers, stag nights, baby showers, graduation ceremonies, going away parties before a move, drinks for a promotion and even funerals being a celebration of life and an end of the physical presence of a loved one.
It’s not just big life changes that demand completions – getting promoted to a manager involves an end to life as an employee where you could complain about “management”, finishing a difficult night school course marks the end of so much extra effort and sacrifice, changing jobs to a new company ends the security associated with a “known” place…. The list goes on….
In life and executive coaching we call this time the opportunity for “Completion” and we are very explicit about it. This means doing what is necessary to feel complete about a certain stage, event or experience so we are fresh to move onto the next stage. It can take a few minutes to sit and reflect, checking in with yourself to know you’re fine with moving on to taking months to adjust, learn and grow confident with what’s been left behind.
Year End is a perfect time for completion – a chance to learn from the time, a chance to identify anything outstanding that you want to address, a chance to express gratitude for what has happened (or not happened!).
Homework #1
Please write 2 lists that reflect the past year.
List 1–All Breakthroughs, Accomplishments, Ah-ha's and other good stuff.
List 2–All Breakdowns, failures, missed opportunities and other icky stuff.
Homework #2
Come up with 4-6 lessons you learned this year that you want to take into the following year.
Anne Taylor is a life and executive coach for Directions Coaching in London. For more information on how coaching can help you in 2015, call Anne on 02031516830.
