If you are in a rush to embody your “New Year, New You” self, you’re missing out on one of the most important steps of goal-setting: reflection. Reflection allows you to step outside of the day-to-day grind and derive meaning from your past experiences. It helps you identify patterns, understand yourself better, and ultimately, it sets you up to create more meaningful goals for the future.
Recording your reflections is also an important part of the process, so grab your favorite notebook or open up a new Google doc and get writing! This can take whatever format you’d like: a vision board, a bulleted list, long-form journaling — however you like to organize your thoughts. If you need help remembering what happened this year, look back at your calendar and scroll through your photos. It’s also helpful to think about how these questions apply to different areas of your life (financial, work, personal, relationships, health & wellness, etc.).
Use the following prompts and questions as a guide for reflecting on 2022:
Highlights
What do you want to remember about this year? What were the good things? What new, positive experiences did you have? This can include milestones like becoming debt free, getting married, starting a new job, having a baby, memorable trips, time spent with family, taking up a new hobby, or learning a skill.
Lowlights
Acknowledge any challenging circumstances you dealt with or negative events that stand out. This could be grieving the loss of a friend or family member, an unresolved conflict with a friend, or losing a job.
What Went Well
What about your life this year made you feel happy and satisfied? What have you made a conscious effort to do that improved your life? Maybe you’ve started to take control of your financial situation or you enjoyed a new habit of going for a daily walk.
What Did Not Go Well
What about your life this year made you feel down or dissatisfied? What did you want to do this year that you failed to take action on or went poorly? Perhaps you never got around to starting that side hustle you wanted or didn’t consistently get enough sleep.
Lessons Learned
What insights did you have this year that you want to remember in the future? What did you discover about yourself? These are your “takeaways” for the year. They don’t have to be deep!
What You Want to do Differently
What about your life do you want to change going forward? What actions would lead to more highlights and “things that when well” than lowlights and “things that did not go well”?
Ultimately, the act of reflecting helps you identify what you value and what makes your life better. If you use this as the foundation for your new year goal-setting, you’re guaranteed to pursue more meaningful goals in 2023!
