10 Questions to Ask Yourself about 2011

Every year over the Christmas holidays I take time away from work and spend it with family, doing needed projects around the house, and readying myself for the New Year. One exercise I do in preparation for the upcoming year is to set personal goals, as well as layout plans to achieve those goals.

As in any goal setting exercise, I always begin by evaluating the past year. After a conversation about 2011 with my good friend Jack McQueeney, Executive Director of the Navigators’ Glen Eyrie Group, he sent me the following list of thought-provoking questions to help me evaluate 2011 and plan for 2012. I share them with you in hopes that they’ll be as helpful to you as they have been for me.

1. What is the greatest lesson you learned this year that you never want your kids to forget?
2. How might you have behaved or acted differently this year if you had to do it over again?
3. Looking back over the year, what did you set out to do that you didn’t do and why?
4. What key discipline did you live out this past year that had a significant impact on your life? What was the impact?
5. What are you most proud of this year?
6. What were the key surprises (good or bad) that happened this year?
7. Which relationships in your life grew this year and which regressed?
8. If you could go back to the beginning of this year, what piece of advice would you give yourself? Why?
9. Looking back, what was the overarching theme for the year?
10. What will be your overarching theme for next year?

Are there other questions you’ve found helpful to answer in evaluating your life?  Please share them with us.