The year 2011 end is coming, before we move on to the new year,
it high time for me to do a review for the year.
To me, doing this annual review is like getting a report card. It
no different with my annual review – except these results aren
for my studies – they e bigger. They e for my life. < br />
1. Draw lessons from the year
What have you experienced this year? What have you learned from
them? With every experience we face, there are important things to
learn. We can either let these incidences pass us by, or we can
stop to understand, internalize them, and draw lessons from them.
Life is your school, and the lessons are dressed up as your
everyday incidences. You don want to be living year after year
without learning from your experiences. That just sleepwalking
your life away.
I realized that the reality was such like all the people and it was
up to me to make the best out of it. I could either sit and bitch
about it which would do absolutely nothing to change the situation,
or I could take action and make the best out of
it.
Many of us generate unnecessary baggage with negative situations
in life, and it all about taking action to create the lives that
we want. Happiness is truly a choice.
2. Wrap up what you e done this year
Many things can happen in a year and this is the perfect time to
wrap them up. Were there any ups and downs? Did you get a
promotion? Did you recently quit your job and joined a new
workplace? Did you just start up a business? Did you move to a new
place? Did you just end an unhappy relationship? Did you move on
from a bad partnership? Any major events took place? Or perhaps
there are nothing significant that happened ?
This is the time to wrap up the year. It time to let go of past
baggage, tie up the loose ends, tidy up your feelings, and get
ready for what ahead.
3. Regain focus
After working for a few years, i foundd that the
years sort of just start to blend into each other. Soon it hard
to tell one year apart from the next. Subsequently, it so easy to
fall into a routine without being conscious of it. Sometimes I hear
people commenting that they e not sure what exactly they e been
doing with the past few years of their lives, because everything
just seems like the same.
It just like driving. When you e driving in a car, it can be
hard to see where you are and where you e heading to. On the other
hand, pausing for a short moment to look at the map can be
amazingly helpful. Where are you right now? How far have you
traveled? Where do you want to go to? Doing so helps you to regain
focus.
4. Start the next year on a high note
Last but not least, your annual review will help you to start
the next year on a high note. As I going to share later in the
post, doing your review includes setting your goals for the next
year. So this year, while other people were
figuring out what to make out of their year, I was a person on a
mission. By mid-year I had already exceeded some of my goals, and
now that it the end of the year, I e accomplished what I had set
out to do at the beginning, and more.
Exercise: Write Your Year End Review for 2011
Let get started on your year end review for this year!
Set aside some quiet time with yourself, for 30-45 minutes or so.
Now, write your answers to the following 6 questions:
1. What are your biggest accomplishments this year?
(Accomplishments here refer to any results you are proud of)
2. What are the biggest lessons you e learned this year?
3. On a scale of 1 – 10, how satisfied are you with how you spent the
year? (Or if you prefer giving grades, what grade would you give
yourself for how this year turned out, between F-to A ?) < br /> Why?
4. What do you want to accomplish next year, such that it your
best year ever? Alternatively:
If it now Dec 31 of next year, what do you want to see in your
life?
What does it take to make you feel a 10/10 satisfaction level at
the end of next year?
5. What new habits to cultivate that will help you to achieve your
goals in Q4?
6. What are your immediate next steps to achieve these
goals?