Greetings!
I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy holiday season, and merry Christmas!
May this season brings you good health, peace, joy, and time with those you love.
Here is a brief leadership message for this week….
Julius Caesar once said, “Experience is the teacher of all things.”
I don’t believe this to be true.
I like executive coach Christian Simpson’s twist on it—“Experience is not the teacher of all things, but examined experience.”
Anyone can continue to plod away year after year gaining experience, but without learning much.
This year will mark a major event of our lifetime, and one of the greatest tragedies of life is to waste the painful experiences by not learning something from them.
Don’t let 2020 go by unexamined.
Take some time to reflect and distill the important life lessons you learned.
You’ve heard me talk about the importance of journaling, so here it is again.
After a decade of reading leadership books, this practice shows up repeatedly as one of the most important personal leadership habits that highly successful people recommend. It can change the course of your life by helping you make necessary adjustments.
Every December, I like to take all my journals from the year and spend some time looking through them, reflecting on my goals, my priorities, and important lessons.
If you don’t already journal, here are a couple prompts to get you started.
- What was the most important things you learned from 2020?
- What were the unexpected gifts of the pandemic?
- List your important victories and accomplishments in 2020. What are you most proud of?
- How did you do at meeting your goals for the year?
- What is most important right now?
Your homework—Take an hour in a quiet place to journal on the questions above.
Have a great holiday season.
Parker
*If you have enjoyed Parker’s Blog, check out The Next Peak Podcast where Parker Co-hosts every other episode.
