2022 is here… Don’t forget to learn from 2021 before creating new plans
A short guide for reflection of achievements in the past year
Looking back can be quite a challenge and sometimes it’s hard to remember everything that happened throughout the year without taking the time to stop and reflect. That is why I present you a short exercise I do at the end of the year (or the beginning of the new one) that helps me reflect on the past year and think about the bigger picture.
Here are some prompts I use to reflect on the previous year:
- What are the things I appreciate about my life right now? What achievements am I most proud of?
- What are my take-aways from the last year? What did I learn?
- What will I be working on in the next year?
Those are just some starting points, then I go through the worksheet below, fill out the answers and reflect back on the year. While doing that I check my bullet journal/calendar to check the actual events that happened and remember back on how it felt in the moment and what I actually experienced.
If you set goals for 2021 you can also compare your answers on the reflection sheet with the goals and check how they align. Did you manage to achieve the goals you set? Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you did not achieve everything — goals change, priorities too and that is a good thing. It is a good skill to have to be able to pivot and be flexible, especially in times like now.
Maybe you will also find some interesting things you did but did not expect them while planing the year. Maybe you will see that your plans do not reflect what turned out to be important for you in hindsight. If you find something like that, write it down and reflect about it.
That is the short exercise. Of course you can add some additional questions and extend it even further, but for me the above are the most important ones and give me a general overview. This in turn also helps me (or gives me guidance) when creating my plan for the next year. I’ll share how I do that and my template in the next article.
