Now that Christmas is over we have a chance to evaluate this past year. Has 2019 been a good year or a bad year?

You could turn your attention to the media, or social media to get an answer, but evaluating it for yourself is more productive.

So was it good or bad? Where do you land?

Evaluating your year depends on a few things.

How do you feel about it?

The year has carried pain and loss for many. Personally and also globally. There were bombings, shootings, fires, disasters, accidents and the painful political strife in the United States. To name just a few.

For many others, it might have been their best year yet. Maybe they got married, bought a house, had a baby, received a promotion, or started a new job or career path.

Our lives are full of events. Some we have control over, and others we don’t.

We tend to be happier when we have control. When things happen outside our control it shakes us up. Things like death, job loss, divorce, storms, and disasters. They strike at our security. We feel a sense of violation.

How we process the events of the year depends on how we look at it.

How do you see it?

What is your immediate response to the question, how did 2019 treat you?

How you see what has happened affects everything.

Perspective.

Where is your focus? What is your attitude?

• Do you see the year as your enemy, blaming it for negative events and/or decisions?
• Or do you see it as it is, a sequence of events you have the power to respond to?

We can go through wonderful things with a negative attitude and it can taint the entire year. The good things somehow become not good enough.

But when our experience falls short of our expectation we still have a choice. We can adapt or we can sulk.

When we go through negative, or even tragic things and adopt a positive attitude to process them, we can turn it around. It doesn’t remove the pain, it simply makes use of it. We can learn. We can use it as fertilizer to grow.

When we make use of our failures or traumas we can make even our worst year constructive or even beneficial.

No year is perfect. There is no magical number. To think one exists sets us up for failure.

Things happen. Both good and bad, happy and sad.

It’s what you do with the things that happen that determines how it affects you.

How are you going to approach 2020?

How you choose to see this current year will bleed into next year.

January 1st is just the date on the calendar following December 31st.

One day, one night and it becomes the next day.

That day alone will not make or break your year.

Your attitude and perspective will.

Taking ownership of your choice will empower you. Making some plans and doable goals will give you direction. Both of these feed a hopeful attitude.

Choose the attitude of hopeful expectation, add some plans and make it a good year.

What makes a year good?

A good year is not just a year you made it through. There is so much more to be discovered in a year-end evaluation. A year that’s “good” can look like many things.

• A year you learned a powerful lesson.
• A year you took some risks and were courageous.
• A year you found things to enjoy no matter if it came easy or it came hard.
• A year you reconnected with someone.
• A year you overcame something.
• A year you celebrated victories both small and large.

And the list goes on.

Your personal evaluation of your life is what makes your year good or bad.

How I evaluated my year.

At the end of this year, I decided to do what I’ve done before.

I went through my calendar month by month taking stock of what I did, and what happened. (I highly recommend doing this)

I knew I’d done a lot of new things, but writing them down makes it so much clearer. It also makes it easier to celebrate the good and process the negative/difficult.

Everything was not perfect (no year can be), but it was a year that was busting at the seams with good.

• I started speaking and coaching.
• I was courageous and took risks many times over the year.
• I recorded, edited and published an audiobook of my short story A Bird Named Payn.
• I did interviews for the first time and had a blast.
• I released my new book Because You Matter and began recording the audiobook version.
• I released the 7-Day CHALLENGE to Love Your Self.
• I made time for family and friends in the midst of a busy business-focused year.

These are just a few that make me feel proud of myself and see this past year as very good.

What Next

• What did you do this past year that you’re proud of yourself?
• What is something you’d like to see change over this next year?
• Share something in the comments that made your year good as defined above.

Danielle Bernock

Author, Coach, and Speaker helping men, women, and organizations EMERGE with clear vision of their value, TAKE ownership of their choices, and CHART a path to their promise, becoming Victorious Souls who Embrace The Change from survive to thrive through the power of the love of God

See Full Bio