A new year. A great time to reflect.

A year ago, my wife and I started a new tradition. We bought a nice bottle of wine, a mason jar and a stack of notecards. We laid the bottle of wine down and then started to write notes about each week, depositing them in the mason jar. This New Year’s Eve, we pulled out the bottle of wine and dumped the notes out on our table. One-by-one, we read the highs and lows from the year. Some funny. Some memorable. Some sorrowful. And there was definitely a big difference from the memories before COVID and after. But collectively, they represented our life together this last year.

New Year’s is always a good time to reflect and prepare. The same is true for your organization and your marketing team’s efforts. Dump out your imaginary cards from a mason jar marked “Marketing.” Just like life, I think you’ll find lot of ups and downs as well. Change. Unprecedented. Unbelievable. These are all operative words that surely will rise to the top as you reflect.

Before we all race into 2021, I also hope you and your team take some time to reflect on 2020. What were you most proud of last year? What relationships did you strengthen? What did you learn that you can apply to this new year? What did you do to make the world a little better? How did you contribute to the well-being of your team and to the organization?

And while reflection is good, forward movement is even better. As we embrace 2021, take time to think about what you want to accomplish in the year. Put your thinking cap on and imagine asking yourself questions this time next year as you reflect about 2021. This is one of the things I love about welcoming a new year. Each year presents us an opportunity to start fresh and move forward with resolve to accomplish something important to each of us.

I look forward to opening our mason jar next year and see what memories we all created this year.

I hope you do too.