I’d hazard a guess you, or someone you know, will have uttered the words “I wish I hadn’t ....” at least once during 2011.

Every one of us will probably be able to pinpoint incidents and actions that make us wince and that we’d rather forget. Most of them will be of our own doing.

Comments we made online and off. Emails we sent in anger and haste. Arguments we had to win, no matter what the cost and who may have been hurt in the process. Promises we broke, to ourselves and others.

They may not be our finest moments, but they shouldn’t be dismissed as each and every one of them gives us an opportunity to consciously decide whether we’d do the same thing again and make informed choices in the future.

There’s no point beating ourselves up. We can’t undo what’s been done. We can, however, use any experiences we’d rather not repeat as opportunities to make different decisions in the future.

Of course, among the small number of incidents we’d like to forget forever there are no doubt many more that we can look back on with a sense of achievement, satisfaction and humble pride. The milestones and achievements we set as goals and achieved with tenacity, persistence and good humour. The people whose lives we touched in positive and supportive ways without even knowing it at the time, and the high-quality, high-value services and solutions we provided for our clients and customers in ways that made them feel both valued and valuable.

While the ‘stand-out’ incidents and events will spring easily to mind at both ends of the ‘remind me/don’t remind me’ spectrum as we look back on 2011, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the small things that occurred on a daily basis we can learn from, to set ourselves up for a positive 2012.

Consider some of the things that held you back during the year and made life harder than it probably needed to be. What can you do to change these?

Think too about the small steps and consistent actions you can do on a daily basis to help move you towards your goals in 2012 in positive, effective ways. How can you incorporate these into your everyday personal and professional life?

Looking back is a powerful tool to help us move forward only if we do so objectively. The limited image we get in a rear-view mirror is a great reminder that if we allow ourselves to dwell on people and events that are well past their ‘use by’ date we’re likely to stall.

Avoid going over the events in detail and instead ask yourself the question ‘did I act with integrity?’ and be honest with your answers.

When we are clear about what we stand for, and what is negotiable and non-negotiable, deciding how to act and behave in the future becomes easy. Acting in line with our values and with integrity, helps build and maintain whatever reputation we may have and influence how we think about ourselves and how others perceive us.

It can also help us stand out for all the right reasons which can set us apart from others and help create a truly competitive edge. Given a choice, most of us would rather associate and deal with people who act with integrity than someone we believe may have questionable ethics.

Feeling centred in who you are, and being clear about what is and what isn’t acceptable to you following a mental review of the year is a powerful exercise that can keep things in perspective and enable us to progress through 2012 without any negative ‘baggage’.

In looking back, acknowledge and then draw a line under those events you’d rather not repeat and make a commitment to living up to your own high standards from 2012 onwards.