How to Complete Your Year in Review
It’s that time of year again!
You know, that end-of-the-year bustle where in between holiday shopping, too many desserts, and in person or virtual family gatherings, you realize you haven’t achieved half of what you set out to do.
You look at your vision board or planner and sigh, wondering if you’ll ever reach your ideal weight, ideal income, or ideal relationship goals.
After another challenging year, it’s easy to jump to the negatives – the things you haven’t completed, forgot to do, or messed up.
Luckily, this is the time of year where any day can be a fresh start.
Where you can dream big and think about who you’re becoming in the new year.
One of my favorite activities at the end of December is to complete a Year in Review.
A Year in Review allows you to look back on your year with gratitude, and based on where you are, set goals for the year ahead.
It’s different from setting New Year’s Resolutions, which are often just a statement of what you hope to accomplish – or what society expects you to want.
Instead, you’ll learn how to set goals that feel good to you, and commit to actions that show your progress each week or each month.
It’s time to stop wishing and start doing!
Here’s how to do a year in review that actually helps you reach your goals:
Step 1: Look Back
The first part of a Year in Review activity is to look back on your year and all you’ve accomplished. For many women, this is challenging, because we’re so quick to judge ourselves on everything we haven’t done yet or the things that went wrong.
One of the best ways to combat impostor syndrome and build confidence is acknowledging all of the things we did right. When you recognize the things that you do well or that you’ve accomplished, you start to build trust in yourself. When you trust yourself, you can rely on yourself to achieve bigger and bigger goals over time.
That’s why it’s so important to start with a celebration and gratitude for the past year. I know there’s a long list of things you’ve achieved this year – so start there! Here are a few questions to get the celebratory juices flowing (with or without a little bubbly):
What went well for you this year?
What were your biggest accomplishments?
What made you feel proud of yourself?
When did you have the most fun?
What compliments did you receive most often?
This is also a great point to reflect on and celebrate your strengths. You have a unique blueprint of talents, skills, and experiences that no one else has. No one can do what you do the way you do it. And that’s something to celebrate!
Once you have your list of accomplishments, it’s time to look at the numbers. This can also be an uncomfortable exercise, especially if you have shame or fear around money or math in general. And, looking at numbers is critical to achieving any goal. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
In my recent Year in Review Workshop, I provided a workbook with a template to track your salary, savings, debt, and other important numbers from this past year. You can click here to sign up for the replay and get a copy of that workbook to help you do this.
What numbers are important to your goals? Is it a revenue goal? Weight or inches? The number of steps you take or ounces of water you drink? Whatever is important to you, think about how you would measure it. We’ll come back to that in a later step, but for now, think about your current numbers and how you feel about them.
Finally, it’s time to transition to the new year! A great place to start is to think about everything you’re grateful for from the prior year, or what you’re most grateful for. Then, consider the following questions:
What do you want to stop doing?
How are you sabotaging your success?
How are you holding yourself back?
What thoughts or behaviors do you want to leave behind?
What people, roles, jobs, habits, or tasks no longer serve you?
Remember: you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Have you taken inventory of that lately? Are you surrounding yourself with people who think money is the root of all evil, or who do nothing but complain about their lives?
Or, are you surrounding yourself with people who have a positive and abundant outlook on their money, career, business, and life in general?
One of the reasons I created Confident on Purpose was to bring together women from different backgrounds who have common goals and worldviews. Those weekly coaching sessions were one of my favorite parts of 2021.
Step 2: Look Ahead
Now that you closed out your year with gratitude and appreciation, it’s time to bring the new year into focus.
Allow yourself to dream big here. Close your eyes and envision your year ahead. Pay close attention to your environment, how you feel, how you’re spending your time. Think about a day in the life of your future. Then, answer the following questions.
What experiences, goals, or habits do you want more of in the new year?
How do you want to spend your time?
What do you want to learn next year?
How do you want to show up to your life?
Who are you becoming next year?
The last question is so important to consider before setting a goal for the new year. You want to align your goals and life with who you’re becoming. That way, you can determine actions and set up habits that help you embody the person you want to be.
Just like you did in step one, you’ll also want to consider your numbers. Based on where you were in the previous year, where do you want to go next year? Do you want to increase your savings and decrease your debt? What do those numbers look like? What else is important to measure for the new year?
Finally, I love choosing a Word of the Year before setting any goals for the year ahead. Choosing one word to guide your year ahead helps you set memorable goals and centers your mind around what matters most. In the past, my Words of the Year have been: Growth, Abundance, Balance, and Wealth. This year, my word is Worth.
To choose your word, consider how you want to feel, be or act in the new year? What do you want more of? How do you want your life to be? When you’re clear on what you want or how you want to feel, setting goals becomes easier.
Step 3: Set Annual & Quarterly Goals
Now that you’ve set an intention for how you want your new year to unfold, it’s time to set your annual and quarterly goals.
If you’ve seen Simon Sinek’s TED Talk ”Start with Why”, then this next step might sound familiar to you! He describes this Why – How – What approach in communicating with your customers, but I think it’s applicable to your goals, too!
So, think about something you want to achieve next year, and set an intention around that. Perhaps it’s earning more money, getting a new job, putting your health and wellbeing first. It doesn’t have to be perfect or specific; you’ll refine this goal later.
Then, ask yourself: Why do you want that thing? Why is it important to achieve it? If you want to earn more money, maybe your why is freedom from debt, maybe it’s to go on a vacation, or to buy a house, or to spend more time with your family. You can ask yourself “why” five times to get to the real root of your desires.
Then, once you have your why, turn your attention to the how. How might you accomplish that goal this year? Again, you’ll continue to refine as you go, so don’t worry if you don’t know all the steps you need to take to achieve your goal.
Let’s say for this example, you want to earn more money so you can buy a vacation home, and you want that so your family has somewhere to gather for holidays and events.
Now, how might you earn more money for that dream vacation home? That could be different for everyone, but think about it for you. The “How” could be getting a better-paying job, it could be asking for a raise or promotion in your current job, or maybe you’ve been thinking of starting your own business, and that’s your how.
For this example, let’s say you want to get a better paying job. So, you want to earn more money because you want to buy a vacation home for your family, and you will do that by getting a better paying job.
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere! Now, it’s time to think about the “what” – the specific actions you will take to achieve that goal. What do you need to do to get that new job?
You’ll need to update your resume, think about what you want in a job, search on Indeed, reach out to friends or recruiters… There are lots of things you could do; list each action as you think about them. It doesn’t mean you will commit to everything on your list.
So now, you have your intention, your why, your how, and your what. Let’s put all of that together into an achievable, SMART goal.
What gets measured gets managed. So in our last example, let’s set a SMART goal around making more money using these questions:
Specific: Am I clear about what I want? Yes! I want to earn more money by getting a new job so I can buy a vacation home.
Measurable: How will I know when I’ve achieved it? I will know when my salary is increased, so let’s get even more specific and say I want to earn $30,000 more. I know $30k is the right number because that’s how much I’ll need to buy the house.
Aligned: Is it in line with my values? Yes! I value family and being together, so making more money will allow me to do that.
Realistic: Do I believe I can achieve this? Yes – I know I have what it takes to get a new job because I’ve done it before, and I know the steps I need to take (the what).
Time-Bound: When do I want to achieve this? Let’s say by March 1, 2022. This timeline is really up to you, based on how complicated your goal is.
Here are a few examples of SMART Goals:
I will sign the offer letter to accept a new job with a $30k salary increase by March 1, 2022.
I will move into my 4,000 square foot cabin with a view of Lake Tahoe by September 15, 2022.
I will earn $5,000 by enrolling 10 clients into my group coaching program by December 31, 2022.
Now that you have your SMART goal with your how, inspired by your why, it’s time to organize your “what” action items - and when you will do them.
Once I have my goal for the year, I love to engage in Quarterly Planning. My top strength is Futuristic, so I love dreaming and planning as much as the next person, but trying to plan an entire year of actions can be overwhelming – and honestly a waste of time and energy.
Things change, life often has different plans for you, and based on your ongoing data review, you might want to make some tweaks to your goals or actions. So instead of trying to guess what actions you’ll need to take eight or nine months from now, focus on one quarter at a time.
When you sign up for the free Year in Review Workshop, you’ll get access to the Quarterly Planning Template in your Workbook. Then, you can make a copy of the template for each quarter as you plan out your goals.
To complete your Quarterly Plan, first start with your annual goal or intention and your why, then decide what SMART goal you will set for the first quarter. Next, break down that goal into three “hows” – one for each month of the quarter. Finally, fill in weekly actions (from your “what” list) that will help you accomplish each monthly goal.
Step 4: Build in Accountability & Support
Now that you’ve determined your annual and quarterly goals, you’ll want to build in accountability and support to ensure you actually achieve them!
You might be familiar with the 2015 study by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University of California, which focused on goal setting and goal accomplishment.
Dr. Matthews split the participants into five groups:
Group 1 was asked to simply think about their goals
Group 2 wrote down their goals
Group 3 wrote down their goals as well as action commitments
Group 4 wrote down their goals and actions, and shared them with a friend
Group 5 wrote their goals and actions, shared them with a friend, and shared their progress on the goal with that friend every week
At the end of the study, only 43 percent of Group 1 either accomplished their goals or were at least half way there. Sixty-two percent of Group 4 accomplished their goals or were at least half way there. And, 76 percent of those in Group 5 either accomplished their goals or were at least half way there.
For your best chance of success in accomplishing your goals for the new year, be sure to follow these steps:
1. Write down your goals: Write your goals in a journal or planner, or use the space in your Year in Review Workbook. Review your goals often and keep them at the top of your mind. You can also write your goals on a sticky note or whiteboard if you want them to be visible to you every day.
2. Commit to taking action: You’ve already done this part with the Why – How – What approach! You have your Quarterly goals and action items, so all you need to do is follow through on your commitments.
3. Stay accountable: The study showed that people who shared their goals with others – peers, mentors, mastermind groups – were significantly more likely to achieve their goals. I’ve found this to be true for me, too. Whenever I share a goal or commitment with someone, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to let that person (or myself) down, so I am more likely to accomplish it.
4. Share Regular Updates: Review your progress toward your goals every week, then follow up with your coach, mentor, friend, colleague to share your progress regularly. Document your progress and especially celebrate your wins – big or small!
The Takeaway
Taking time to acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate the previous year will help you attract what you want in the new year. So often, we want to move on to the next thing, especially after a setback or perceived failure. Instead, welcoming the new year with gratitude will help you see the promise of a fresh start; of limitless possibilities.
Take action now: Use the prompts from this article or sign up to watch the Year in Review Workshop replay, to start your Year in Review now. Then, set goals for the next quarter by breaking your big goals down into smaller steps and actions. Finally, tell someone about your goals and commitments! Start now by letting me know what you’re committing to in the comments :)