It’s the end of the year, and it’s natural to start thinking about next year. It’s tempting to jump right to creating resolutions or setting goals. Not so fast, my friend. Before you start looking ahead, it pays to look back to review and reflect on the year just past.
Looking back over last year will increase your self-awareness. You’ll be able to reevaluate your decisions, actions, and outcomes with the clarity that comes with hindsight. You’re likely to spot behavior patterns, evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, and identify the values you live by.
After you analyze and reflect on the year just past, you can use that insight to make better decisions in the future.
Reflecting on life events from the last year can produce deep wisdom. Here are some suggestions on how to gain the benefits of looking back.
Set Aside Time
It’s important to set aside time to review the past and think about its lessons. There must be enough time. Fifteen-minute snatches will not do it. Give yourself at least an hour to an hour and a half. For most people, 90 minutes is the right amount of time to start a thinking session, gain some meaningful insight, and then wind down.
Your review will be more effective if you devote more than one block of time to it. Between one block of time and the next your brain will work on it without conscious effort. It will throw ideas and insights at you when you are doing something else. Capture them.
Review Last Year
Don’t expect your brain to remember everything you want to consider. Give it a little help. Look back over your calendar or appointment book. That will tell you how you spent your time. Look at your checkbook. That will tell you how you spent your money. If you keep a journal, review the entries from the last year.
Who were the people who influenced you last year? What were the significant events? Did you read any books or hear any sermons or speeches that moved you or changed your thinking? How are you different today compared with a year ago?
Reflect
Reflect on the last year. What were the high points and the low points? When were the situations when you acted like the person you want to be? What about the times when you didn’t act that way?
We gain wisdom by reflecting. Pain and mistakes are wasted if we don’t salvage insight. Sometimes, our decision process was good, but the outcome was bad because of chance or circumstances beyond our control. Reflecting helps us do better next time and make peace with our pain.
When you take time to review and reflect, you increase your ability to make good plans and wise choices.
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How have you changed in the past year?
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Terry Moore, CCIM, is the author of Building Legacy Wealth: How to Build Wealth and Live a Life Worth Imitating. Read his “Welcome to My Blog.”