Celebrate Quietly

This is the time of year for celebration. In the northern hemisphere, we counteract the lack of sunlight with feasts and festivals that bring candlelight and Christmas tree light into our dark days. If your family is anything like mine, these are days for cozy gatherings with loved ones — often with joyous singing and lots of laughter.

In the midst of this noisy fun comes wise Peter Drucker with helpful advice:

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection.

From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

Performance Reviews – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As I wrote at this time last year, a periodic personal review of our own performance can yield helpful insights. Extending that review to cover our personal and professional lives is even better. (See Your Year-End Review for suggestions on how to do this.)

But not every performance review is as helpful. This Drucker quote reminded me that in our striving to do more and do better, we too often focus on our flaws, our missed opportunities, our failures to meet expectations. This is how we have been trained to keep ourselves moving forward into ever-increasing productivity.

There definitely is a time and place for constructive criticism that guides us to better performance. But a single-minded commitment to conquering flaws deprives us of a even more powerful method for living and working at the level of excellence we desire.

Follow Drucker’s Advice

That better method is what Drucker calls “quiet reflection.” This involves switching your focus from the negative to the positive. This change in focus unlocks insight as you analyze your achievements and your many instances of “effective action,” looking for patterns of behavior and other signs that guide you to even more effective action. This change in focus from negative to positive also unlocks your creativity as you discern new ways to build on your proven strengths to achieve greater success in the future.

If you want to put Drucker’s advice into practice, take a little time during this transition from the old year to the new to list your personal and professional successes in 2024. Next, pause a moment to celebrate each of those successes. Celebrate what you achieved, celebrate what you learned through those achievements, and celebrate how you have grown because of them.

But, keeping Drucker in mind, celebrate quietly. Take this opportunity to reflect quietly on the “why” and “how” of your successes. This will give you a head start in 2025 because you will know your strengths and will be able to look for ways to deploy them better.

Keep Celebrating in 2025

Life is too short to spend time in needless negativity. Make a commitment to yourself to celebrate each of your successes in 2025. Take the time to applaud each accomplishment and acknowledge the skills, learning, and personal traits that made it possible. Next, plan how you might extend the impact of those skills, learning, and personal traits. Then watch the magic happen.

Celebrate effective action with quiet reflection. This is a great way to ensure success in 2025.

Happy New Year from Peter Drucker and me!

[Photo Credit: Prophsee Journals]