Reflection

My business mentor challenged us a few nights ago to sit down for an hour and reflect back on 2014.  Say you reached your goals, how did you stay on track?  Say you didn't, what inhibited your success?  Reflection grants us the opportunity to utilize our experiences and learn from them.  We need to be careful to not use this time to criticize ourselves, but instead look objectively at the mistakes or successes.  Let me share some of my discoveries.  

As I reflect back at the year one thing is abundantly clear.  I am loved.  I have an amazing husband, son, and family.  Not only that, but a God in heaven that cares for me more than I can ever imagine.  At times I have felt alone, but this is the result of believing lies and not truths.  I need to remind myself of the truths of life, so when a lie arises, it has no power because it is contrary to my truthful reality.

Secondly, I need to take blame honorably.  I am a faulted human being.  So many people are not secure enough to take ownership of their mistakes honestly and move on from them.  One perfect example is that Marcus was supposed to check in at work on Christmas Eve.  He is in the military for all who don't know.  He completely forgot and got several calls from friends.  In immense haste, he rushed in to work.  They reprimanded him for not showing up on time and started nagging him for an excuse.  Marcus responded, "I forgot.  It is my mistake."  They offered him paperwork to refute the punishment waged against him and he denied it.  He replied, "I know what I did was wrong, I don't need to refute it."  They were absolutely shocked.  He took ownership of his mistake... no one does this.  Because of his response, they ended up shredding his "paperwork", aka his punishment.  Marcus is confident enough in himself to take responsibility for his actions and own up to them.  This is something I need to strive for.  So many people become defensive.  I strive to own up to my mistakes, even at my own expense.

Another reflection point is being my own focus.  Our mentors spoke a lot about marriage and how years ago they learned to stop correcting each other.  Since then, it has granted them a lot of peace and happiness in their marriage.  I need to focus on myself and trust that my husband (and others) will do the same.  I am my own responsibility.

I challenge you to take some time and think back over the year.  Make growth an intentional decision.  I will probably be sharing more in the next few days about my reflections of the year.  Please join me.  Growth is done best as a team.

-"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" -Matthew 7:3