What has 2012 taught you?

  • Published
  • By Col. Mitchell Monroe
  • 571st Contingency Response Group commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  I find it hard to believe we're already in the middle of December and the end of 2012 is fast approaching.

I don't know about you, but I'm counting on the fact those wacky Mayans didn't have it right and we'll still be here in 2013.

But will next year be the same as last year? A better question is, did you learn the lessons 2012 tried to teach you? I can give you a simple tool to help you make 2013 a better year than last.

In the military, we're seemingly obsessed with capturing "lessons learned." It's been my experience more often than not, what we actually capture are "lessons observed."

Allow me to explain the difference. Let's imagine there's a pot of water boiling on the stove. If you grab the pot handle and it burns your hand, you've observed two things. First, the pot handle is burning hot. The second is you bought a cheap pot without an insulated handle.

Sticking with the kitchen analogy, you would only grab the pot handle again without a mitt if you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer. By using some sort of insulation to allow you to handle the pot without burning yourself, you've demonstrated a lesson learned. An easy way to apply that to our everyday lives is through the Action-Observation-Reflection model.

The Action-Observation-Reflection model explains how most adults learn. It's typical to experience or cause an action and then observe the result of that action. True learning occurs when we reflect upon that observation. If you want to ensure 2013 is better than 2012, I encourage you to apply this model to your professional and personal lives. Here's one example of how I do it.

One of the many lessons I learned from my father is to take stock of my finances at the end of every calendar year. I've found it very helpful to look back and assess how I've done with my wages. What's my ratio of debt to assets? Have I saved enough for the proverbial rainy day? Have I invested wisely? Have I been generous enough to charities? I now take that assessment (the action) and the resulting analysis (the observation) one step further and plan on what to do during the next calendar year (the reflection).

We owe it to ourselves to improve our lives, professionally and personally. Blindly marching into 2013, believing each day is the same as the next, will virtually guarantee you'll be in the same place a year from now.

However, by learning the lessons 2012 has taught us, we should be able to improve our lives. We cannot control much of what happens to us, so we should be that much more concerned over positively affecting that which we can control.

By reflecting on the past year and learning the lessons life taught us, we can set ourselves up for success in 2013. My best wishes to you and yours and I hope this tip brings you a prosperous and happy new year.