What the Month of Elul Teaches Us
About Growth
Jeff Sitt
Before we ask Hashem for a better year, Elul asks us to take
an honest look at the year we’ve just lived.
Every successful business conducts some form of review. What worked? What didn’t? Where did we grow? Where did we waste time, money, or energy? What problems keep repeating themselves? What needs to change before we move forward? We understand this in business. We review numbers, people, systems, inventory, and performance because we know something important, you can’t improve what you’re unwilling to look at honestly.
But how often do we conduct that same audit on ourselves? That’s one of the great opportunities of the month of Elul.
By the time you’re reading this, we’re already in Elul, the Hebrew month leading into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Judaism doesn’t simply give us a new year and tell us to make some resolutions. It gives us an entire month beforehand to reflect, take stock, and prepare. Think about that. Before asking, “What do I want from the year ahead?” we’re encouraged to ask, “What did I do with the year I was just given?” That’s a very different question.
Most of us are good at looking forward. We have goals, plans, business targets, things we want to buy, places we want to go, and problems we want solved. But growth doesn’t only come from setting a better destination. Sometimes it comes from becoming honest about who’s doing the driving. That’s the internal audit.
Where am I today? Where have I grown? Where am I still repeating the same patterns? What conversations am I avoiding? How am I showing up for my spouse, my children, my employees, my partners, and the people who depend on me? Am I leading my business, or is my business leading me? And perhaps the hardest question of all, Who am I becoming?
Elul isn’t meant to be an exercise in beating ourselves up. An honest audit isn’t about shame. It’s about awareness. If a business discovers a weakness in its systems, the answer isn’t to sit around feeling terrible about it. The answer is to understand it, address it, and build something better. Why should personal growth be any different?
We all have areas that need work. Maybe you’ve become more reactive. Maybe you’ve stopped listening. Maybe success has made you less present at home. Maybe you’ve been so busy taking care of everything that you’ve stopped taking care of yourself. Maybe there’s a conversation you know you need to have. Or maybe, when you really look at the past year, you realize something else. You’ve actually grown more than you’ve given yourself credit for. That’s part of the audit too.
Elul asks us to look honestly, not negatively. There’s a big difference because awareness creates choice. Once I can see a pattern, I can decide whether I want to continue it. Once I recognize how I’m showing up, I can choose how I want to show up differently. Once I know where I am, I can begin deciding where I want to go.
So here’s a simple exercise for this month. Take ten quiet minutes. No phone, no email, no distractions. Ask yourself five questions. Where have I genuinely grown over the past year? What am I doing today that I know I need to stop? What am I avoiding that I know I need to address? What is one improvement I can make to strengthen my spiritual connection with Hashem? Who do I want to become before this time next year?
Don’t try to solve everything. Just pay attention. In Hebrew, there’s a beautiful phrase, Sim Lev, to place your heart, to pay attention. Maybe that’s what Elul is really asking of us. Pay attention to your choices, your relationships, your patterns, your blessings, and the person you’re becoming.
Rosh Hashanah will soon arrive, and we’ll ask Hashem for health, blessing, success, peace, and a good year. But perhaps one of the greatest preparations for a new year isn’t deciding what we want to accomplish next. It’s taking an honest look at who we’ve become this past year, and deciding who we want to become in the year ahead. That’s the internal audit. And there’s still time to make an adjustment.
