Recently, I was driving my mom’s SUV and suddenly realized that I forgot to adjust the rear-view mirror. Even though the SUV was in full momentum of moving forward I still needed to adjust the mirror, glance back and make sure I could see everything behind me clearly.

Whew! There’s so much I can unpack in that last sentence.

For example: How many of us have adjusted the metaphorical mirror of perspective in our lives so that when we look back on the things we’ve done or the things that’s happened to us we’re looking with clarity? Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself and this article.

Let’s get back to the rear-view mirror situation. Here’s a definition of rear-view mirror that I found online.

A rear-view mirror (or rearview mirror) is a, usually flat, mirror in automobiles and other vehicles, designed to allow the driver to see rearward through the vehicle’s rear window (rear windshield).

This brings me to a challenge I have for us.

If you’ve ever done 1-on-1 coaching with me then you know I’ll sometimes offer a challenge to help my clients complete a certain action. They can accept or deny the challenge but if they deny then they need to offer a counter challenge.

Here’s our challenge.

I want us to write every positive thing we did this year; and not just the big things. Include even the small goals, events or actions. The last few days of the year can act as a rear-view mirror as we glance back on what we’ve completed, obtained, and enjoyed while we still look forward to the new year. Instead of looking back with regret we can look forward with gladness.

I was inspired to do this after seeing one of my favorite social media couples, Max and Maya Living, post a video of themselves reviewing the resolutions they wrote at the beginning of the year. For me, the best part of the video was when both of them realized that they accomplished a lot more than they realized. Max said, and Maya agreed, “I thought this was going to be much worse than it was.” What Max said stood out to me.

Why do we think things are much worse than they are?

I blame this on something called the Negativity Bias. According to The Decision Lab,

The negativity bias is a cognitive bias that results in adverse events having a more significant impact on our psychological state than positive events. Negativity bias occurs even when adverse events and positive events are of the same magnitude, meaning we feel negative events more intensely.

Which brings me back to our challenge.

If we’re not careful we can spend the last few days of the year focusing on all the bad things that happened. Or the things we wanted to happen but because they didn’t happen we consider this a bad thing.

Instead, what if we glanced back on the year while moving forward but do it while focusing on the positive. I’ll start by sharing my Top 5 Achievements for the year:

• I passed my 1-year kidney donor check-up
• I traveled, like got on a plane, which I haven’t done in over a year
• I witnessed one of my best friends get married
• I’m in the midst of getting another coaching certification which I’m so excited about
• And I’ve been creating new products that will launch in the new year

Now, I’m going to be honest. I can easily list five negative things BUT I’m choosing, with intention, not to focus on the negative. I want to look back with appreciation, celebration and overall satisfaction.

I want to encourage you to do the same if you accept this challenge.

Below are a few, literally two, actions to help you Glance Back While Moving Forward. You don’t have to spend weeks working on this challenge. I purposely titled this “Glance Back…” instead of “Look Back…”. The action is to take a brief look at your accomplishments this year.