"We overestimate what we can achieve in a day and we underestimate what we can achieve in a year" - I heard this quote many years back and I agree with it completely.
As another year draws to a close, our minds might throw a lot of questions - "How did the time pass by so quickly? What did I even do this year? Did I achieve anything significant?", etc.
I used to get a lot of such questions, but the yearly reflection and review exercise helped me find answers. I find this exercise very helpful as it helps me introspect on various key moments of the year. I strongly vouch for taking the time to reflect upon the year gone by. I've been following it since 2005 and the process has gone through multiple iterations. Here's the one that I've been sticking to for the past few years.
My review of a year begins on the 1st day of the same year. I'm not kidding! On Jan 1st of every year, I start a Note (on the Evernote app) with the title "Year in review". This is a work-in-progress note with the following categories:
- Books finished
- Books in progress
- Courses finished
- Courses in progress
- Milestones reached
- Places visited
- New experiences
- Key decisions made
- Projects/Initiatives Started
- Progress on certain life priorities
- Surprises/small wins/challenges/disasters
- Lessons learned
- Anything else that I'd like to capture
I update this Note every week without fail. At the end of the year, typically in the last week of Dec, I write a detailed review post on my blog based on this Note. I just love the whole process as it helps me reflect and capture the finer details of the previous year!
If this sounds tedious, the other possible ways to reflect:
- glance through your weekly to-do lists
- go over your photos and videos that were taken during that year
- go over the posts you created on social media
- go through your daily planner/journal if you write one
Take the time to reflect, whichever means work for you.
Without reflection, there is no awareness.
Without awareness, there is no change.
Without change, there is no self-growth.
Without self-growth, there is no meaning.