Year End Review Part 1
As we inch our way to 2022, many of my clients are reflecting on this past year. So much happens over the course of a year. Lessons learned. Victories. Hardships. Physical changes. Special moments. Personal growth. New relationships. But by the time New Year's rolls around, we often forget most of what happened because life gets in the way.
You can learn so much from your past year. Many people try to focus on their New Year's resolutions, but in order to become better next year we must reflect on how we've changed in the past twelve months. From hard-fought accomplishments that we celebrated to emotional damage we'd rather put behind us, leveraging the past is essential to moving forward in the future.
Taking a year end review is a powerful exercise to see how far you have really come, even if you didn’t achieve all your goals. A year end review puts into perspective the impact you are making as a whole being, not just at work. Even Bill Gates does this and publishes it!
Before you make any resolutions, do this year end review so you know what to focus on in 2022.
“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” - Meg Wheatley
These exercises take time, but are well worth it. You’ll end the year with greater perspective and a compass for what you want to achieve next year.
The process for this year end review and planning for 2022 is broken into 3 different parts:
Part 1 - Collecting the Evidence
Part 2 - Putting Insights Into Action
Part 3 - Setting Up Your Processes and Systems
This blog outlines Part 1 - Collecting the Evidence.
Part 1
Collecting the evidence. Take time to look back at this last year and take inventory of what happened in your life. Good or bad, everything that has happened has shaped you, and it's important to recognize each event.
Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels
Step 1
Set the stage: Hint! You don’t need a fancy retreat to conduct your reflection.
It’s an iterative process, block several 30mins/60mins slots of uninterrupted time for each part
Paper, pen and the questions printed, turn off the distractions such as your phone, wifi, browser, etc.
Gather the data with your journals, calendar, or other personal data you have that will have the evidence for your thoughts, actions, failures and wins
Tune out the outside world, and instead — tune IN to you — You can do this exercise from a beach chair, the couch, the plane, wherever you are free from distractions and can think freely
Step 2
Plot your moments, memories, and milestones by month. Flip through your journal's pages, look at the key events in your calendar, or think of your highlights and lowlights of the year.
For example -
January: Continued recovery from surgery, said no to a project to focus on my healing, redesigned website, joined a business coaching program…
February: Submitted first grant application, visited Ottawa to celebrate nieces’ bday, noticed I gained a few pounds, missed a grant submission deadline...
Step 3
These questions will help you organize your thoughts and feelings. You don’t need to answer them chronologically, or even all of them. You can skip the ones that don’t feel right. However, I’ve found that the questions I felt resistance toward shined a light on something I tried to ignore. Once you feel your answers are complete, you can stop. Take a break and let it rest.
Reflection: Success & Growth
What were your three biggest work/personal accomplishments? What contributed to them?
Are there any other smaller goals you achieved that you are proud of?
Have you developed any healthy habits you want to keep?
Have you developed any new skills? What helped you learn them?
What was the best decision you made all year? What did you learn from it?
What risks did you take, and what were the rewards?
What did you let go of in 2021?
Reflection: Failure & Falling Short
What were your biggest failures? What did you learn from them?
What goals didn’t you accomplish? What got in the way?
What were some bad habits you followed or adopted?
What were the two or three worst decisions you made this year? What did you learn from them?
Where did you spend too much time or other resources?
Reflection: Relationships
What new relationships enhanced your life? Who? How?
Which relationships reduced enjoyment in your life?
Which person has inspired you the most? How?
How has your relationship with yourself changed over the year?
Who do I need to forgive?
Reflection: Lessons & Themes
What were the top lessons that you learned this year?
What were the two or three peak moments and lowest moments this year? What were you doing? What happened? What did you learn?
What were you most grateful for this year? (Include the big things, the little things, the profound and the everyday)
Is there anything else you want to reflect on that hasn’t been asked yet?
