I shamelessly admit that I've been eating Christmas cake for over a month now. What I haven't got round to doing is taking stock of my year. As in, more than a passing glance.

Of course, I'm full of questions:

What happened this year? What went well and not so well? What influenced my decisions? Where did I get stuck? What moved me forward? What do I want to change?

These are not the sort of questions you can seriously answer with a mouthful of Christmas cake. Taking real time to reflect over your year is important for several reasons:

It motivates you to do more of the good and less of the not so good
It allows you to relive and acknowledge your successes
It builds your resiliency
It sets you up for the new year

It's not easy either, to find yourself thinking that your career hasn't really moved forward. If you find yourself in a rut, or on a treadmill going nowhere, think about:

If you knew you were going to succeed, what would you do to change your circumstances?
What is the smallest action you could take to start you off?
Who do you know that could help or support you?

For a more in-depth look at your past year then try my 20 End-of-Year Reflection Questions PDF download. Guaranteed to make you pause, think and reflect in a beneficial way on your career. Christmas cake optional.