16th December 2024
“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” ~John Dewey
It’s hard to believe that 2024 is already coming to a close.
One of my most cherished rituals for bringing the year to a meaningful end, is a Personal Annual Review.
The end of the calendar year presents us with a unique & valuable opportunity to reflect on the year that was & plan for the year that will be.
In our rush to look forward, it’s easy to glaze over the former & focus on the latter—but a failure to reflect will eventually result in a failure to grow.
I started conducting a Personal Annual Review sone years ago & it has been a transformative exercise—one that has had an outsized impact on my personal progress & growth.
To begin the process, I ask myself two questions and try to come up with at least 6-8 answers to each:
What went well this year?
What did not go well this year?
For these answers, I’m mostly interested in events I have control over. If something did not go well that I couldn’t prevent or control, it doesn’t need to go on the list.
Next, I start looking towards the future, based on goals that are set by category.
Here are the categories that I use: Writing, Business, Friends & Family, Service, Travel, Spiritual, Health, Learning, Financial (Earning), Financial (Giving), Financial (Saving)
While thinking about each category over the course of a week, I set an average of 3-5 measurable goals for each.
The idea is to create a road map for the year ahead—not a rigid daily schedule, but an overall outline of what matters to me and what I hope to achieve in the next year. I complete this process in bits and pieces over several days.
I maintain a lot of different roles, both professional and personal. It’s how I like to work, and I know that you are probably a busy person too. When someone asks how I can do “so much,” I always mention this week-long planning process.
There is no hidden secret to working towards a lot of big goals at the same time, but taking the time to clearly define specific objectives each year has helped me more than anything else.
Remember, we tend to underestimate what we can do in an average year.
Set your goals high, take some time to do this right, and you’ll thank yourself later.
By using this exercise, you might even have the best year of your life.
Try out your own ‘Personal Annual Review’ exercise this week & stay blessed forever.