On December 31st social media gets filled with end of year reviews that showcase the highlights of the year passed. But is it really worth taking time to reflect on your year or is this just another social media trend to take part in?
First and foremost, while scrolling your feed, it’s important to remember that social media is a highlight reel. It often displays the best, most exciting, and flashiest parts of people’s lives and doesn’t necessarily tell the whole truth. We can enjoy these posts as entertainment and inspiration, but should not compare ourselves or our lives to some stranger on Instagram.
Also, it’s important to remember that even though we keep seeing all these super positive end-of-year recaps that are full of happiness, good fortune, and success, it’s okay if your year wasn’t filled with them. Sometimes bad things happen and life is shitty, sometimes we are numb, sad, or afraid. Sometimes we just have to survive, and that is okay too.
That being said, there are many benefits to reflecting on your year. Whether it was full of joy and success or a phase you are more than happy to leave behind.
Should You Reflect on Your Year?
Of course we don’t have to set new goals or reflect on our lives just because the calendar says so. Self-reflection and introspection are useful skills every day of the year, but we don’t always have time for them in our fast-paced lives. Also, we as people like to structure time and our lives through rituals, milestones, and rites of passage. For many the turn of the year marks the beginning of something new, a fresh start so to say, and therefore it’s a good time to reflect on things.
It’s important to acknowledge our achievements and successes and recognise what we have learned. But it’s equally important to understand where we didn’t succeed (or even failed), what we didn’t enjoy doing and what we could do better. Only through self-reflection will we learn what is really important to us and where we find joy and happiness, but also learn what to leave behind and what areas to improve on. To put it briefly, to understand what we want from the year ahead, it’s good to think about how the previous year went.
As stated in the article published in Psychology Today, year-end reflection is important for our transformation, growth, and change. In the article, Diana Raab (Ph.D.) says:
“Reflection is a good habit to engage in and has many benefits: it can be transformative, it helps facilitate changes, and it increases our sense of self-awareness. When we don’t examine our life, it’s easy to lose perspective about what really matters and open ourselves up to prolonged unhappiness.”
3 Tips to Help You Reflect on Your Year
1. List all your achievements and celebrate them
It’s quite normal that we remember only our mistakes and ruminate on things that didn’t go as planned. But it’s important to also remember our accomplishments. At first you might look back at your year and think you didn’t get anything done. Accomplishment or success doesn’t have to mean completing huge projects or getting a promotion, even small everyday achievements are important. Think about all the goals you reached, things you got done, and all the positive differences you made. This can help increase motivation, resilience, and confidence and also helps to create a feeling of gratitude.
2. Look at the parts of your life that you’re not happy with and learn from your mistakes
Even though it can sometimes be hard to admit, none of us are perfect and we all make mistakes. We can’t be successful in everything we do, but we can try and learn from our mistakes. Instead of criticizing yourself, try to be analytical about why you weren’t able to meet your goals. List the things that didn’t go your way or that you weren’t able to achieve. Then try to analyze what you can learn from the experience and what you can do better next time. For us to learn, improve, and progress, it’s important to look at the parts of our lives that we are not as happy with. These shouldn’t be seen as failures, but rather as things that we can learn from or as things we want to get rid of.
3. Think what is important to you and set realistic goals
One reason why we don’t achieve our goals is because they aren’t aligned with our values or are not realistic. Determine if your old goals are still valid and a priority to you. It might also be time to set new ones. Be honest with yourself and think about what is really important to you. What is it that you want more of and what do you want less of? What brings value to your life and makes you feel good about yourself? When you know what you want to achieve, set realistic and concrete goals and write down the steps on how to reach them.
Hope you find these tips helpful while planning your year and setting new goals. Happy New Year, everyone!