The year is winding to a close.
We are frantically scurrying to wrap up projects for work, prepare for the holiday season, attend special events at school, and squeeze in social time with family and friends.
Yet, the season between now and the first week of the new year often has moments of quiet in between the bustle.
These moments are the perfect time to reflect on the year that has passed and set some intentions for the year ahead.
Not everyone is the “New Year’s Resolution” kind of person and that is OK.
You can go deep with goals if you want, but you can also just think generally about the year in front of you and where you want to be when you are reflecting back on it.
My Story – Years of Evolution
I have been doing an annual reflection for as long as I can remember.
This was especially true at work. With annual performance reviews, noting down work accomplishments was almost an “assignment”.
Somewhere around 2010, I started expanding my look back to two categories – work and home. I was looking for the elusive balance and wanted to make sure I was reflecting on and setting intentions for both categories.
In 2015, I had a life-changing opportunity to work with a career coach. At the end of the year, she provided questions that encouraged me to think much more deeply about the year that had just passed.
This was the shift for me.
I dove into the questions and really thought about what I wanted – both personally and professionally. This same year, I came across the concept of selecting a word of the year. That word is a guiding star to keep me on track with a clear, simple reminder of my aspirations.
The most recent evolution for me was in 2018. I found 8 areas of wellbeing online. The categories – Occupational, Physical, Social, Environmental, Spiritual, Emotional, Financial, and Intellectual. The source can be traced back to Margaret Swarbrick. I worked the definitions of each into summaries that worked for me and then developed a set of questions for both reflection and intention.
There have been updates to the questions in the last four years, but the framework has stayed the same and pairing this work with the selection of a word of the year has really added intentionality to my personal development.
Your Turn
Do you have an annual reflection process?
Do you write your thoughts down or reflect in your mind?
Is this time of year the best for your reflection or do you find another moment more inspirational?