Welcome to your new year 2015!  Have you been having fun?  I do hope so.  Now that we are finished with the holidays and all of the fun of the holidays, travel, families, presents, New Year’s Eve, it is time to re-enter into work.

And yet, something is not quite right yet is it?  You are ready to plan or perhaps have planned for a brilliant 2015 and yet, all those plans may still seem a little flat or dull to you.  What in the heck is missing?  Completion of 2014.  Yes, that’s right—in order to be fresh and energetic in your work you need to complete 2014, or it will lurk behind you causing all kinds of mischief that you can handily avoid.

Completion does not mean finished, as in done with, or never to be looked at again.  It means, loosely stated, being whole or OK with what has happened in the past.  Danger lurks in incompletion: Rehearsal Exhaustion: constantly referring back to our past to make sure we don’t forget it, and to predict possible future outcomes.  As more and more things are left incomplete, we are more and more distracted and exhausted by the ever-increasing rehearsal (changingminds.org).

It makes sense, doesn’t it?  If something is incomplete, we do continue referring back to it to make sure we don’t forget it.  So to avoid that state of mind let’s just complete 2014 and then be ready to move on to 2015.  This isn’t hard.  It does require some time and thought.  What are the working parts of your business that you may want to complete?  Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself. This list certainly is not exhaustive so please add to it.

Regarding your Business in 2014:

• Who were you being?
• What did you accomplish?
• What did you learn?
• What do you need to improve?
• What challenges did you have?
• How were your relationships with your staff? Clients? Contractors?  What could change?
• What new products did you offer?
• How well did your marketing work? What worked best about your marketing?
• What new marketing ventures did try? How did they work?
• What product did you sell the most?  the least?
• What was your gross profit, expenses, net profit?
• Overall, what was the best thing about your business in 2014?
• What was the worst thing about your business in 2014?
• What would you do differently if you could?

By going through the list above and answering the questions, you should be on your way to being complete with 2014 and ready to start 2015 anew.

If you find the list too much, just answer what questions make sense to you.  The effect will be the same.  The idea is to have you focus on completion of the 2014 business.

As always I am here to help.  I look forward to hearing from you in the space below.

Image courtesy of [Serge Bertasius Photography] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net