There are but a handful of days left in 2014. Inevitably at this time of year, we review the past year and reflect on how it went. And then, of course, we make proclamations about how the next year is going to be different.

We’re finally going to stick with x, y or z new habit. At long last we’ll actually stop doing that thing we’ve been trying to stop doing for the past 10 years. We’ll meditate daily, move our bodies regularly, stop eating gluten, get off coffee, and take the time to hang our clothes up at the end of the day instead of throwing them on the chair in a heap.

I love a resolution as much as the next girl. I’m into goals. I love setting benchmarks. I make a mean vision board. Dreaming and scheming about the future and how awesome it’s going to be is pretty much my favorite pastime.

But in the flurry of cleansing, detoxing, wiping the slate clean, and the sparkly promises of the New Year, we often forget one important thing: noticing what’s already going great.

How to Feel Better Pretty Much Immediately

Last summer I was sitting on the beach with my little sister. She was complaining about one thing or another and was generally bumming herself and me out. Rather than point out why her life did, in fact, not suck (I didn’t want to invalidate her, you know), I told her we were going to play a game.

It was called the “This Is What’s Awesome Game.”

“How it works,” I said, “is that you tell me one thing that’s awesome in your life right now. Then I tell you one thing that’s awesome in my life right now. Then we’ll keep going back and forth.” Though I’d just made the game up on the spot, both of us got the hang of it pretty quickly.

And, wouldn’t you know it, we also both started to feel a lot better.

Noticing what’s already awesome in your life makes you feel better pretty much 100% of the time. (Click to Tweet)

When we set about making decisions about how the New Year is going to be the best year ever, we focus primarily on change. It’s all about bigger, better, and more.

But I guarantee you that there are some things going amazingly well in your life already. And when we ignore these things, going straight for the transformation, it invalidates the part of us that needs to be acknowledged for having created what’s already going well.

A New Kind of Year-End Review

Mike and I will be doing our year-end review and continuing our 2015 planning in the next couple of days. I’ll get out a big book with blank pages, and, like I always do, I’ll write down:

– What went great in 2014

– What didn’t go so great in 2014

– What we learned in 2014

– What we desire to create in 2015 (business and personal – some quantitative, some qualitative)

But this year I’ll be adding a category:

– What’s already going great in our lives right this very moment

Off the top of my head, I know that my newfound love of cooking, my BUTI Yoga practice, and my relationships with incredible girlfriends will be on that list.

There’s great value in assessing what’s not going well so we can make improvements. But often we’re so busy making improvements that we completely ignore the parts of our lives that are going well.

This year, don’t take what’s working in your life for granted. Take time to notice what’s already awesome.

Our dreams are best built on a solid foundation of acknowledging the good we already have going on. (Click to Tweet)

Over to you:

As 2014 comes to a close, what’s already going great in your life? Leave a comment below – I’d love to witness your acknowledgment of the awesomeness!