What a year 2020 has been! Personally it’s been an emotional rollercoaster, where my courage, discipline, strength of character and my values were tested relentlessly. If ever there was a year to do an end of year reflection its 2020.
You may be thinking that after the type of year 2020 was let’s just move on and never look back. But if you’re looking to be more of an active creator in your life where you learn from the past to design the life you want in the future, rather than living on autopilot, always reactive to things, people and circumstances around you, then self-reflection is crucial.
I recommend setting aside some time to go over your accomplishments, new skills learned, areas of your life where you saw improvement as well as the challenges, obstacles and missteps you may have made. The next thing is to reflect on how you can continue to build upon the successes, acknowledge how you overcame (or maybe not) obstacles and think about how you may do things differently in the future for all of the choices you made where you weren’t happy with the outcome.
The simple act of acknowledging and being aware of something makes it easier to change or improve upon in the future because you are very clear on what the benchmark to meet or beat is.
Most successful companies have year end reviews so why wouldn’t we do it for our most valuable asset…our own lives.
As the quote by Robin Sharma goes: “What gets measured gets improved”.
I would call the end of year reflection an informal measurement of your success and challenges, whereas evaluating the specific goals you set for yourself in writing at the beginning of the year tracking the rate of completion for each goal and then setting up your next goals is a more formal measurement.
Asking questions is a great way to start the reflection process so I’ve provided you with 21 questions for your year end review with a follow up question for the new year. You don’t have to answer every question and you may want to add some questions that are relevant to you, that’s okay, the goal of this exercise is to get us all to be more mindful of ourselves our choices and our patterns as this is the basics of self-improvement. It ensures that we remain on a path of growth!
End of year Review Questions:
- What was your biggest accomplishments of 2020?
- How will you build upon those accomplishments for 2021?
- What was your biggest challenge of 2020
- Did you overcome the challenge? If so how?
- What was something you regretted doing in 2020?
- Is there anyway to “fix” the thing you regret? How would you better deal with such a thing in the future?
- What did you learn about yourself in 2020?
- How will you use this information to improve in 2021?
- What is something you faced head on despite being nervous about it?
- Were you proud of yourself for doing so?
- What books did you read this year?
- Do you have any books you would like to read in 2021?
- What positive habit did you adopt in 2020?
- Are there any other healthy habits you would like to adopt in 2021?
- What negative habit did you drop in 2020?
- Are there any other habits you would like to drop in 2021?
- The nicest thing you did for someone in 2020?
- Are there ways I can give back to others a little more in 2021?
- How would you describe your physical and mental health in 2020?
- How can you improve your physical and mental health for 2021?
- Name a way you broke out of your comfort zone in 2020?
- Can you be more intentional about getting out of your comfort zone in 2021?
- What new skill did you learn in 2020?
- Will you build upon this skill or try something new in 2021?
- What was your biggest time waster in 2020?
- What activity could you take up to replace the time wasting activity?
- How do you feel you have grown over the past year?
- How will you continue to support this growth in 2021?
- What were you most grateful for this year?
- How can you bring more gratitude to your life in 2021?
- Did you achieve the goals you set for yourself in 2020?
- Will you adjust your goals and keep working on them in 2021?
- Did you meet anyone that was meaningful to you in 2020?
- How might you network in 2021 to attract more amazing people into your life in 2021?
- What was a new discovery you made of something you love in 2020 (a new recipe, podcast, new fitness class?)
- How can you find ways to be more adventurous and try new things in 2021?
- Who in your life deserves a big THANK-YOU for being supportive or helping you in some way?
- How can you show your appreciation to that person in 2021?
- What’s a bias or limiting belief that you have that you’ve become aware of this year?
- How can you work on yourself to change this bias or limiting belief that you are now aware of in 2021?
- What advice would you give yourself if you could go back to the beginning of the year?
- Use and remember this advice for 2021 (I know this is not really a follow up question, more a gentle suggestion 🙂 )
If you need any help setting up goals and making a plan so that you can live your best life in 2021 then feel free to reach out to me!
