How to Do a Yearly Reflection to Get the Most Out Of 2022
My game plan to build my own mini-empire and how you can do it too.
I achieved one goal in 2021.
My goal was to read 50 books; I read 62. When I told my partner, he looked at me with astonishment. I didn’t expect him to be impressed, considering I’m a massive book nerd and reading is like breathing to me. I felt pretty glum that this was the only thing I’d tick off on my list of goals for 2021.
I started doing yearly reflections in 2020. I thought it’d be a great way to hold myself accountable and fulfill my potential. And yet, I fell short in almost every area that I wanted to improve in this year.
And it sucks, but here we are — wrapping up 2021, doing another yearly reflection, and setting another set of goals.
It’s important to take time and reflect on your failures, probably more important than reflecting on your success. You need to understand where you went wrong, and more importantly, you need to understand why you failed in the first place.
So this morning, I filled my current favorite mug with coffee, turned on some light music, got my journal out, and read through the goals I set for myself a year ago.
Afterward, I pondered, realized the only person to blame was, well, myself, and told myself I had two options. I could either say, “Screw it, I worked so hard and didn’t get what I wanted — I’m done” or, I could swallow my pride and frustrations, understand that shit happens, and lots of shit did, in fact, happen, and move forward.
I moved forward. Because at the end of the day, I still learned a lot, and I don’t want to be that loser that gives up on her hopes and dreams all because of a few bumps in the road.
With that being said, hindsight is 20/20. You learn the most after something happens, and while you can’t do anything to change the past, you can take this time to collect the information, evaluate, learn, and grow.
Reflection and setting goals is a powerful way to identify the patterns in your life, and the ideas and clarity you get after doing this exercise will provide you with the tools to create a better you, and a better year.
First off — set 1–2 hours aside, grab your journal, and evaluate the year from the very beginning.
I decided to go through my Instagram and YouTube channel. I learned that I started 2021 incredibly strong — posting inspirational photos, articles, and videos consistently, I read a lot, took an insane amount of pictures, and my writing career was really doing well.
When summer came, I went to the beach daily, ate a lot of delicious food, spent a lot of time with my partner and friends, and got the chance to fly my family out to LA.
I realized my year was incredibly eventful, despite feeling like I hadn’t done much. It felt like I’d blinked, and it all happened without me realizing it.
What you can do:
What happened in 2021? What did your year look like? How did you spend the majority of your time?
Scroll through your social media, look at your photos, read your captions, look at your gallery in your phone; what did you take pictures of? What did you write in your journal? What was the one thing you looked forward to every day? Every week? What books did you read? What did you focus on? What was a constant in your life? What friends did you reconnect with? What friends did you lose? What made you feel? What made you happy?
You might not have met all of your goals, but dig a little. What did you learn? What did you realize? What goals did you not meet, but you now realize aren’t even that important to you anymore? Which goals are you frustrated over not meeting? What do you want to do differently?
Now, take into consideration your accomplishments & your failures.
At the end of 2020, I journaled about my intention to bring my family to LA in the summer and take them to Palm Springs. My goal was to pay for it all. Which I did, and I’m proud of that little accomplishment.
I also talked about how I wanted to get better at communicating my feelings to my boyfriend and how I really wanted to prioritize limiting any arguments we had. While I do believe arguing is inevitable, I’m a petty individual. I wanted to change that about myself.
Upon reflection, I’d met essentially all of my “personal” goals. I worked on myself, my mental health, my relationship with my partner and my family, but you don’t really think about whether or not you’ve improved in these types of areas because if your “big” goals aren’t met, you feel discouraged and like you’re failing.
I failed in my business goals — I wanted to be a full-time writer, and while I did achieve that goal for some time, I ended up losing an income stream that forced me to get a part-time job outside of writing.
Looking back, I remember thinking how frustrated I felt. “I’m declining,” I told myself while skimming job descriptions on LinkedIn.
Now, I realize, shit happens. You gotta do what you gotta do.
What you can do:
What are you most proud of?
What did you accomplish without even realizing it?
For example, I realized that my boyfriend and I hadn’t gone to bed angry at one another in months. This is huge! 2020 old me would go to bed angry and wake up angry without even giving it a single thought. Now, I take a breather when I get frustrated. I take a step back. I think. I calm down.
Now, what areas did you fall short in?
Why did you fall short? What could you have done differently? Could you have done anything to change the outcome?
There are certain things that are simply out of our control, and no matter how hard we try, we just can’t change them. I couldn’t change the fact that I lost an income stream; the only thing I could do was find another source as fast as possible.
Finally, write down 2022 at the top of a blank new page — and write your goals.
After evaluating 2021 and going over your accomplishments and your failures, you’re ready to set some fresh goals for yourself.
This time — be strategic. You have a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, so utilize that to your advantage.
If you set a goal to wake up early in 2021, and you were only able to wake up early for a week out of the entire year, maybe waking up early just isn’t your thing, and you need to learn how to be more efficient with your time instead.
Maybe you set some goals for 2021, and you fell short simply out of laziness or a lack of motivation. If that’s the case, focus on being more disciplined within the New Year.
Goals shouldn’t feel negative, and you shouldn’t feel dread the moment you think about them. You should feel inspired when you set them because you’re making them for the purpose of becoming your greatest self. Not anyone else’s greatest self or society’s version of a greater self.
What you can do:
Take some time to really think before writing your goals out. If it helps, think of it as intentions rather than concrete goals.
For example, if you want to start a workout habit, or lose weight, try writing down:
“My intention is to be more disciplined in my daily life and incorporate 30–60 minutes of exercise Monday through Friday.”
Or, if you want to grow your side hustle, but you’re struggling with balancing it out with your full-time job:
“My intention is to be more strategic and efficient with my time, so I could balance my side-hustle with my full-time job. This will entail limiting social media usage throughout the day, time-blocking…etc.”
I wrote my goals on one side of my journal and a game plan to achieve those goals on the other side.
Remember, it’s not about getting it right off the bat. It’s about doing the best you can, understanding what areas you need to improve on, and always moving forward, never looking back.
Every year will have ups and downs. As you reflect on 2021, have a bit of compassion for yourself. Be proud of the accomplishments you did make, and focus on improving yourself in the New Year.