Reflecting Over The Year

The journey of life is not an easy, clear, direct path.  There are lots of ups and downs.  Maybe this was an up year or perhaps it was a down year.  Either way, it’s important to reflect over the year.  You’ve made it through some tough times.  Take a look at the obstacles you’ve overcome and the difficulties that you’ve faced.  Celebrate each milestone on your journey.  These challenges have pushed you out of your comfort zone and helped you to step into a higher version of yourself.  Without these challenges it’s difficult to learn and grow.  Here is how to complete your yearly reflection.

Learn

There are things you know now that you didn’t know at the beginning of the year.  Whether this was knowledge you gained through books, podcasts, videos, or courses, you’ve furthered your mental cognizance.  Maybe you learned a new skill this year by taking up a new hobby.  Perhaps you gained further expertise by coming up with a solution to a challenge.  Reflect over all the ways you’ve been able to increase your knowledge this year.

Act

There are things you would do differently now that you have more knowledge and insight.  This does not mean you have regrets.  There are simply things you would do differently now to save yourself time, money, frustration, or resources had you known then what you know now.  You cannot go back in time to change anything, you can only move forward and look to the future with determination not to make the same mistake twice.  You must learn from the past and use that to help you in the future.  The new year will present new challenges with opportunities to learn and grow.  Reflect over the past year and think about how you’ll act in the future.

Become

Life is not about the destination, it’s the journey and who you become along the way that matters.  Life is all about, learning, growing, and becoming better than you were yesterday.  Who you were at the start of the year is wildly different than who you are today.  It may be difficult to see immediately, but just think about how you’ve learned and grown over the year.  You’ve become wiser, smarter, and more worldly as time has gone on.  Perhaps you had to step up and become a leader this year.  Maybe you had to turn inward to show yourself love and compassion with self care.  It could be that you had to be there for others and played a big role in helping someone else.  Reflect over this past year and who you’ve had to become during the most difficult of times.

Accept Where You Are

Maybe you thought the year would turn out differently.  Perhaps things happened that were outside of your control.  Take in the year and accept where you presently are.  Don’t make any excuses.  Be okay with where you currently stand.  You must first acknowledge where you are before you can figure out how you’ll get to where you want to be in the future.  Then, get excited for the new year because there’s a huge opportunity for growth.  You can still achieve big things.  Accept where you are and get ready for the amazing things to come in the new year.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not quite where you’d like to be.  The truth is, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.  Whether that’s where you wanted to be or not.  You must accept where you presently are in order to figure out how to move forward from here and into the new year.  There are so many opportunities for growth to come in the new year.  Complete your yearly reflection so that you can fully show up and step into who you’re supposed to be in the new year.