First and foremost, Happy New Year! I hope it’s gotten off to a great start. I especially appreciate your faithfulness in coming to Blue Ink and sharing your thoughts. I hope it continues to be a source of inspiration and encouragement for the coming year.

In my previous December-post I made the case for first “looking back” to identify lessons-learned before “looking forward,” and jumping-in to the traditional rhythm of defining resolutions and goals for the new year.

I took it a step further by challenging you to exchange lessons with others to enrich your learning experience even further – thus the kickoff of #2014LLE – the 2014 Lessons Learned Exchange.

The results are in and the response was amazing! I’m impressed by the time many of you took to share very personal reflections and thoughts – thank you! What stood out as a central theme was your focus on relationships – communication, sensitivity, resolving conflict, support, etc. (important!…and likely a subject of a future post).

Here’s a quick summary of the main points via direct quotes from your comments (for the full text see the comment section of the last post): (more…)

What? Hash-tags on this blog…”I thought I’d never see the day” (you’re probably thinking). Well this post is different. Rather than just providing content (as I regularly attempt to do), I’m issuing a challenge directly to you…to take a step often overlooked…causing many to undermine their chances of even starting the new year “on the right foot.” Sufficiently confused (or interested)? Let me demystify…

Tis’ the season for new years’ resolutions – the key to focus, achievement, happiness and all things good…right? In fact if you “google it” you’ll get 35.8 million “results” on great techniques, processes, methods, etc. What could I possibly add (…that I haven’t already)? I won’t.

Rather I submit that the prerequisite for all the elaborate goal-setting-, mapping- and strategizing- techniques is to have an accurate read on your starting point…which is, in fact, your “ending point.” In other words – taking an inventory of where you are today and what lessons you’ve learned that will enable you to be more successful in the future.

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Happy Valentines!

Picture: www.idlehearts.com