This article is part of my Systems for Success trilogy:
- How to look back over your year (without getting lost in it)
- How to Set Goals for the New Year (and take your resolutions past January)
- The magic system I use to follow through on my goals: How to accomplish all your goals (and 10x your productivity this year)
This time of year, my feed fills with people reflecting on their accomplishments, challenges and most important moments of the last twelve months (with a heavy emphasis on the positive, since it’s for social media sharing). It can feel a little hollow – just a snapshot of the best of times.
I like to take some time on the 31st, to sit alone with my thoughts and some music and reflect on the year. To process what has happened, how it’s affected me, the ways I’ve shown up (or not) for myself and others, and to think about which pieces I want to bring into the new year and which ones I’d rather leave behind. I started as a teenager and never really dropped the practice. There’s something almost magical about that still moment at the edge of the year, before the celebrations sweep it away in a wave of champagne and celebratory hugs.
Something I introduced when I became an adult is a more formal, thorough review – borrowing questions from self-awareness practice, Agile methodology and a number of other sources to truly interrogate the year, the highs, the lows, the lessons learned. It’s been a powerful tool in not only acknowledging and celebrating my progress, but also in setting myself up for success in the following year. Not just a walk down memory lane, but rather a conscious reflection to help process, acknowledge, analyse and draw lessons learned from the year past.
If you’d like to join me, this is what it looks like.
Printable Download
Set aside time and space
You can do this pretty much anywhere where you’ll have quiet, uninterrupted time and a way to write notes. I like to use my laptop (so I can refer back to them on Trello throughout the year) but pen and paper are also a fantastic choice.
Refresh your memory
My memory can’t quite hold all twelve months at once, so taking a short trip down memory lane helps me reflect on what the year has brought. I do a quick evaluation each month (if you’re interested in learning more about that, check out My Management System), so that’s an easy place to start. You can also reach for your calendar, photos, journal, or notes – whichever place holds some traces of what you’ve been up to. Work to remember the key pieces of your year – how did they make you feel? What led to them?
Be open to the positive, the negative, and everything in between. It’s all been part of you this year, and without it all it wouldn’t be a complete picture. There will be things you had no control over, things you are proud of, and things you will wish you had done differently. Be kind to yourself. Be clear-eyed, but remember you’re not here to beat yourself up, but to take stock.
Once you’re happy you’ve reviewed the last 12 months, move on to the evaluation stage.
Wheel of Life Review
This is an exercise I’ve incorporated into my quarterly and yearly reviews and that has really helped me take stock of all areas of my life.
It’s simply a wheel divided into eight areas that are key to your life; you then evaluate how satisfied on a scale of one to ten you are with that particular area (ten being you’re extremely satisfied, and one meaning things couldn’t be worse). Don’t just assign a number – note down the reasons for that evaluation. Next to it, also mark the things that have positively influenced the score this year (for example, a promotion may have raised your satisfaction in the Professional/Business area, or, having developed your assertiveness at work, your overall satisfaction has improved) and those that negatively influenced it (for example, unexpected debt or expenses could have decreased your satisfaction in the Financial/Money area, or a habit or mindset held you back in that regard).
You can see the main categories below (and feel free to grab the printable here) but you can also edit them and remove any irrelevant ones, or add any that make more sense for your life, such as creativity, mental state, productivity, social life, spiritual growth, attitude, etc.
| Area | Positive | Negative | Leisure/Fun |
|---|---|---|
| Health/Well-being | ||
| Friends & Family | ||
| Love & Partnership | ||
| Physical Environment | ||
| Professional/Business | ||
| Financial/Money | ||
| Personal Growth | ||
Evaluate your past goals
If you set goals for yourself this year, it’s time to evaluate them.
- For those you achieved, what was key in successfully achieving them (it could be an action, a step you took, a system you used, a mindset change, etc.)?
- For those you didn’t achieve, why do you think that was? And would you want to carry them over into the new year, put them back into your backlog, or is it time to let them go?
| Goal | Achieved? | Reasons Why |
|---|---|---|
Question Time
When your walk down memory lane, Wheel of Life review and goal evaluation are complete, it’s time to interrogate the year. These are my favourite questions:
- What were the big moments, memories, accomplishments and milestones from this year?
- What was the most challenging or scariest part of this year for you?
- What are you most proud of?
- What made you feel happy, inspired, excited, fulfilled, grateful? What things brought you the most energy and joy? Think people, experiences, places, habits, projects, tasks…
- How can you do more of that next year?
- What were the lowlights? What things were hard on you, drained your energy or generally affected things negatively? Think people, experiences, places, habits, projects, tasks…
- How can you reduce those next year?
- What worked this year?
- What didn’t work this year? Think both about factors outside your control and mistakes, regrets, or things you wish you had done differently.
- Are there areas where you made things harder than they needed to be? What would they have looked like if you’d made them easy?
- What were the biggest lessons learned?
- What did you learn about yourself?
- How can you apply what you learned in the next year?
- What are you most grateful for?
- What was the nicest thing someone did for you this year?
- What was the nicest thing you did for someone else this year?
- What types of relationships did you develop in the past year? Are there any you would like to improve, change or end?
- How did you grow as a person? (new skills, habits, priorities, preferences, relationships, perspectives, environments…)
- Is there something that has blocked you this year and kept you from growing the way you’d like? Are there beliefs, fears and/or patterns of behaviour that didn’t serve you well?
- Did you spend your time on the right things? If not, how would you change that moving forwards?
- How did you align yourself to your key values?
- Are your priorities the same now as they were at the beginning of the year?
- What themes emerged this year?
- If you continue on the path you’re on, are you happy with your destination?
- Based on all of the above, what do you want to:
- Stop doing next year
- Start doing next year
- Continue doing next year
Embracing and letting go
Congratulations on making it this far. You’ve not only given yourself a chance to reflect, process and celebrate your accomplishments over the last year, but to accept and learn from your mistakes and set yourself up to do better next year. Your head should feel a bit calmer now and more ready for the year ahead.
Embrace the accomplishments, lessons learned and life experiences the year has brought, and leave behind your regret or guilt over what you didn’t accomplish – you’ve already extracted the useful lessons from them, and they are now in the past.
And if you’re ready to set your goals for the coming year, check out the next post in this trilogy, How to Set Goals for the New Year (and take your resolutions past January).
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