End of year reflection: The importance of looking back

Now that we have entered the new year, it’s important that we look back and reflect on the past decade. That way you know what you did well, the areas you could improve on and how you can go about planning for the next chapter of your life.

To get the most out of your reflection, there are 3 important things that you should aim to go over and fully understand:

1) Look back and celebrate all your achievements
Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the trap of only looking at the things you need to improve on. Instead of focusing solely on the things you weren’t able to get done, start thinking about all the positive differences that you were able to make in the year. It doesn’t matter how big or small they were or even how many people you managed to impact.

Perhaps you were able to get the job you’ve always wanted or moved into the house you’ve been looking at for a while. Maybe you were able to spend a bit less and put more money aside each month or have been regularly exercising, going to the gym or class every week. No matter what you’ve managed to achieve, it is important to recognise and celebrate all the changes you have made.

2) Try to learn from your mistakes
Life sometimes gets in the way and we may not have been able to do all the things that we wanted to do. Rather than think about all of the things that you weren’t able to achieve in the year, try to be analytical about why you weren’t able to meet some of your goals and some of the lessons you can learn from them.

Sometimes we don’t achieve the goals that we set ourselves because they were too big, other times we may realise that they were never that important to us. Have an honest look at why you didn’t reach your goals and some things you will try to do better next time.

3) Re-organise your goals going forward
Now that you know what went well in the past decade and the areas you might need to improve on, it’s time to evaluate your goals moving forward.
Are there any that you weren’t able to get done but feel like they are still a priority? Are there any goals that you no longer feel like you want to aim for? How about new challenges that you would like to take on?

For example, one of your goals you might have wanted to achieve last year is to have better control over your finances. After reflecting, you might have realised that you were unable to reach your savings goal of £2,000 by the end of the year because there was no easy way for you to track your spending and spreadsheets were too much trouble.

Perhaps you’ve come to the conclusion that having an app that automatically tracks your spending would be a much easier way to monitor your outgoings. The Zeux App app is a great way to help you monitor what you spend. By showing you all your outgoings into easy to read categories, you can better learn what you spend the bulk of your money on.

Sticking to your goals is much easier when you organise them by the priority they have in your life.

You can organise your goals in 5 simple steps:
1. Start by listing out the goals that you want to complete this year
2. Remove any that no longer reflects the direction that you are planning to take.
3. Include any that you were unable to complete last year but still want to achieve.
4. Add in any additional goals you may have thought of this year
5. Order your goals by importance and the impact it will have on your life

After re-organising your goals, you should now have a clearer understanding of the direction you would like to head in and now also have goals that will help to realign your life.

With your new found purpose and sense of achievement in mind, it’s time to use what you’ve learned to make the next decade, much more successful than the last.

About Zeux

Zeux provides an easier way for you to track your daily and monthly spending to help you reach your end of year savings goals. Download the app now on iOS and Android.