December is known to be too busy of a time to do any personal projects, including the reflection I need about the ending year, so I usually do this in January when things are slow and winter time is keeping us in.

A couple of years ago, I used a sweet and down to earth blog  for guidance on reflecting on the past year (2012 at the time) and preparing the goals for the new one. Lara’s Goal Setting challenge helped me answer some tough questions and make good decisions and I’m grateful for it. This is Lara’s 2015 version of it  if you’re interested.

I also used Michael Hyatt’s Creating Your Personal Life Plan e-book  which I highly recommend  to help me have a big picture view of my life and plan all aspects of it including Self, Career and Finances in addition to my important relationships.

It’s been a while since I looked at my answers to these exercises which took commitment to finish. It would be interesting to see what changed since then. However, I highly recommend embarking on such personal deep digging efforts for all the rewards we get by knowing ourselves better.

This year, I would just like to list the lessons I learned in 2014 which will definitely help me be a better person and hopefully help whoever reads this. So, here they are with no specific order:

1. I learned to visit the sick and not delay it out of fear or denial about their situation or else it would be too late sometimes and regrets would remain.
2. Using my daily 40 minute commute to/from work as a learning experiment was one of the most important things I introduced as a regular practice this year. I was definitely inspired by the amazing motivational speaker Zig Ziglar who coined “the automobile university” term  to encourage using our idle time in the car for getting educated and motivated. It is worth mentioning that Seth Godin introduced me to Zig Ziglar and he also frequently praised this habit which had a big impact on his life in many of his posts. His different audiobook recommendations were tremendously beneficial to me during the past year and I have found many other remarkable titles that I have enjoyed on audible, my dear daily companion.
3. I learned the importance of getting a good night’s sleep regularly and being serious about it; it’s really not related to this being my first year as a mum since fortunately my baby girl is an all nighter. It is the fact that when I get 7 hours of sleep: I’m totally a different person, I’m happier and more energetic, especially in the evening, this is when I touch the difference the most. If I slept well the night before I can keep going and enjoy my time with my baby after a long day out at work. Come to really think of it, this was the year I woke up at 6 am in weekdays for God’s sake and at 8 am in weekends to be able enjoy the day and have enough time for myself as well as my different commitments! This routine is all new to me and I’m so proud of it. It’s not a regular habit yet but I’m it’s going to be for sure.
4. I learned the importance of experimenting and finding new ways for things to work out. For example, when I find the house chores daunting, I now turn on one of my audiobooks, and guess what? the house chores magically become a learning experience that I enjoy much more now!
5. I learned about love. suffice to say being a mum to my one year old daughter is a blessing I will forever thank God for.
6. Finally, I learned that my fears about having no time for me life after having a baby were really out of proportion. I still find time to do the things I really love, such as reading, because I can’t afford not to. I deliberately MAKE time for these things, that’s a message I would choose to tell my past panicking pregnant self if I could.