When we think about what we want to accomplish in the coming year, we generally focus on how we want to change ourselves, what we didn’t like about our behavior last year and maybe even what we did wrong. While I am always in favor of a conscious effort to improve, I am going to suggest that it is extremely worthwhile to devote some time to identifying what worked really well last year, where you excelled and what you’re doing that you would like to see more of.
The idea of a focused effort to do more of the same, instead of changing your behaviors and instituting a bunch of new ones, is the reverse of the usual approach and makes me think of bizarro Superman from “Seinfeld”—”Superman’s exact opposite who lives in the backwards bizarro world. Up is down, down is up. He says hello when he leaves, goodbye when he arrives.” Let’s take a look at why we are so focused on the negative when we review our past.
