One is what one group calls RDS— Review, Defects and Solutions. Review how you did the whole year vis-à-vis your objectives. How did you fare in regards to what you set out to do as you might have considered this time of last year. Were all targets met or achieved? Did you just reach half-way? Or you achieved only a small step forward?
Then the defects should be assessed. How come did I only achieve this when I planned to progress far into the sky? What were the reasons? Was it a defect in method or on how I did things? Or did I make the wrong choices including the wrong path to the goal?
Having identified the defects, the solutions should come in or should be considered. How should I do it next time around so I will be more successful? What were the wrong choices I made so I would avoid them next time they pop up their ugly heads?
If one can be objective about these, he or she should do better next time, next year when a yearend assessment has to be again undertaken. Whether what is under consideration is business, career in the professions, or personal matters, the process are identical.
Another must is not to compare oneself with others. For there will always be someone better than you, or has a bigger business than yours, or has more money than you, etc. An inferiority complex might develop in you.
And when you compare yourself with someone who is less fortunate than you are, your ego might get bloated and you will develop a superiority complex.
So the only comparison that one should do is on where one was in the past and where he is now. Did you progress after one year? Or was your New Year’s resolution in 2017 more known in the breach than in the observance?
Perhaps we just have to try again to be better next time.**