With the end of the year approaching, it is a great time to check in with yourself and your business.  What are your wins?  What have been your challenges?  How was this year different from the one you set out to have?  

In what ways do you go about checking in with your 2018?  You can crunch the numbers and check out if your practice has made a profit.  You can look at your current caseload to determine if you are full or not.  I don’t know about you all, but when I was first asked to review my year, I couldn’t remember anything important regarding my business earlier than the summer.  Sure, I remembered bits and pieces, but not enough to have a thorough review of my year.  For me it is helpful to look at the financial health of my practice, however the numbers do not tell me all I need to know about my year.  Some months may have been higher revenue while some were lower, but what factors made the difference?  Are there other things that are important to you within your work besides your bottom line?  So, while it is important to look at your practice at the end of the year, it is just as important if not more important to check in with your practice more frequently.  While I do set yearly and quarterly goals, I have also chosen to check in with myself and my business each month.  I am so glad that I did.

The holiday season is upon us.  A time for family and friends, too much food and presents.  Many parents I know worry about how much is too much when it comes to presents and gift giving.  Parents buy many many toys that are sometimes tossed to the side and not used in the ways that you hoped.  This can bring up feelings of frustration and resentment and may make you wonder what your child is grateful for, if anything.  If you ask your child what they are grateful for, many times you will hear that they are grateful for their tablets or phones, toys, maybe their house or if you’re lucky they might say you or their family.  While these are definitely things to be grateful for, the ideas of gratefulness or gratitude are much bigger than the things we possess.  How can we teach our children about the power of gratitude?