Reflecting on your story

It’s come so quickly – 2019 is at its end!

I’ve always found this time of year to be a natural opportunity to look back and reflect – contemplate all I did (and didn’t do), the numerous places I traveled, and the magnitude of the changes that occurred in me, my family, and my business during the year.  Why?  The nostalgia is heart-warming; lessons learned are invaluable; accomplishments achieved, satisfying; and intentional gratitude for all things resets my attitude for the year ahead as it feeds my soul.

This year, with the end of the decade rapidly approaching, I find myself casting my gaze further back – reviewing not just the year past, but also the decades.   I’m now at the point in life where I can look back over several of them and notice the broader changes that occurred in each.  Over the course of an entire decade, the changes that occur in us are often transformational – fundamental to who we are as human beings.

My extended trip down ‘Memory Lane’ this year brought me this expanded view of my story:

• At the beginning of the 1970s, I was a young boy mesmerized by the Space Race and disturbed by the war in Vietnam.  By the end of that decade I had entered my awkward, yet transformative, adolescent years.
• When the 80s began, I was a high school student trying to fit in and not get beat up. As the decade progressed, I did too – through my college years and an early 20-something identity crisis.  By decade’s end I was spiritually awake and working full-time.
• At the start of the 1990s I was single.  I ended that decade happily married and blessed with my two delightful girls.
• Upon the advent of the New Century I was an employee of a multinational company. By the end of its first decade, my family had gained our son, but lost our mothers.  We had lived on three continents and traveled the world.  My career transitioned from ‘employee’, through a business partnership, to solo entrepreneur.
• In 2010 we had a noisy house full of three kids and all their friends.  Now, here at the end of the 20-teens, the house is quieter, the nest is empty.  The fathers are now gone too, but we’ve added a son-in-law to the mix!  My career has completely changed yet again, and the outlook for the future is as bright and exciting as ever.

Contemplation and recognition of who we are and how we got here can be very helpful as we journey through life.   It helps us see our story in a broader context.

How about you – why not take a few moments right now to reflect upon the milestones of your own past decades?  Take the trip for yourself and see what you might discover about the story of your life so far!