Lessons Learned From This Year's Challenges: 7 Ways

Lessons Learned From This Year's Challenges: Seven Self-Awareness Hacks

The hardest moments of your year hold its most useful lessons. Here are seven ways to find them this November, and the science behind each one.

Every year brings challenges you did not choose: a project that collapsed, a loss in the family, a client who walked away, a decision that turned out wrong. By November, most of us have filed them away as bad memories and moved on, which leaves the most useful part of the year unread.

Your difficult moments carry more information about you than your easy ones. Pressure shows you how you react, what you protect and who you turn to, and none of that is visible on a calm day. Research into self-awareness found that around 95% of people believe they are self-aware, while only 10 to 15% meet the measures researchers use. Looking back at your challenges with clear eyes is one of the fastest ways to close that gap.

You have ten months of evidence behind you, and the festive invitations have not yet filled your evenings. Our guide to finishing the year strong covers your projects and goals. The seven steps below help you find the lessons in what went wrong, and each one takes less than an hour.