I recently shared with a few people that I am in the process of conducting my annual life review. Enough of you have asked that I thought I’d share my process here.
Conducting a life review is more than making a few vague resolutions that will be forgotten by the end of January. It’s also not about making a rigid plan that will be impossible to implement and will just make you feel bad when something doesn’t work out.
I’ve been doing this since around 2010 and I usually take a chunk of time to work though this process, breaking it down into sections, and revisiting things several times over the course of about two weeks. The last few years, since moving to Ireland, I’ve done an abbreviated version of this process because December in the Northern Hemisphere is a frantic time, unlike the slower pace of mid summer in South Africa.
Last year (2020) I took a group of women through the process during lockdown. I used a vision board format and we spent two hours, via Zoom, identifying how we wanted to FEEL in each aspect of our lives, and then identifying steps we could take to achieve this. The feedback was really positive. If you’d be interested in doing something similar, I’ll be running this workshop on Sunday 23 January, let me know if you’d like to join: Message me!
The starting point of my life review incorporates the following questions:
- How did I feel overall this year? (Positive or negative)
- What are the things that contributed to my positive feelings?
- What are the things that contributed to my negative feelings?
I then break down the answers to these questions into those things that are and aren not within my control.
I’m a great believer in looking back over the year that’s been before looking forward. We often underestimate what we’ve achieved and how far we’ve come. So my next step is to review the goals I set over the last year. I take it one section at a time, one goal at a time. Did I achieve it? Is it still relevant? How does that make me FEEL.
As you may have gathered, the feelings are very important to me. I spent enough years bypassing my feelings, so connecting in to how things make me feel is a crucial part of my life journey.
I don’t have a 100% result, and I don’t expect to. If I did, my goals would not be stretching me and I would become stagnant and demotivated. If I have managed to achieve between 70 – 80% of my goals, I know that I am learning and growing.
Looking to the Year Ahead
My process is broken down into different aspects of my life. Your’s will look different, depending on your priorities and life design. Mine have also changed over the years, so I review whether the categories I’ve created still serve me.
These are my current categories:
| Health | this has become more of a priority as I get older; |
| Relationships | this is further broken down into family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances; |
| Writing | this has been a priority at different times over the years, this year it will be a main focus; |
| Learning | lifelong learning is one of the core values of my life, and I’m always studying, either formally or informally; |
| Business and Career | my business and career goals are broken down further and form a review process on their own. |
| Money | this also broken down further into different aspects of income, savings, giving etc. |
| Travel and Adventure | one of my favourite aspects of my review process (a little impeded by lockdown) |
| Time | this is a newer category that I added about seven years ago. My time is very important to me and I value time that I’m not “busy”, where I have space to think to read, to just be. |
| Other | This category accounts for some of the things I want to do that don’e really fit into any of the others. |
One of the secrets of setting goals is to ensure that they are measurable and achievable. Also, don’t set too many goals, just list the main ones. I usually have between three and five in each category. You can flesh these out as you work on them. It was trial and error in the first years as I got a feel for the process and what did and didn’t work.
Once I’ve set my goals (this is usually a coloured pens, paper and sticky note exercise) I enter them into my spreadsheet so that I can break them down into actionable steps – this is what my second column is all about.
This is the planning section where you list out the actionable steps for each of your goals. These are the main actions, not all the little steps at this stage.
A lot of people work with a word of the year, I set a theme for the year. For example four years ago when I moved from South Africa to Ireland my theme was The Year of Embracing Change. I set my theme only after I have fleshed out my goals because I will usually pick up a pattern across all the aspects of my life. If I set the theme ahead of time, it may not be in alignment with my goals and the way my life is moving.
In another sheet in the spreadsheet I add my metrics for measuring. The financial measures are obvious, but others will be specific to what I want to achieve.
I look at my plan regularly (every week or so) and do a mini review every quarter. I’m not afraid to make changes if I feel that something is no longer aligned. This is a dynamic process because life changes all the time as we change and grow. Also, life is too short to hang onto things that no longer serve us.
I journal through some questions when I’m planning for the year ahead. I do these once I’ve set my theme for the year and the questions, as with those I shared at the beginning, hinge on feelings rather than achievements.
- What are the core feelings I want to embrace this year?
- How will I nurture myself in the coming year?
- What do I need more of this year?
- What do I need to let go of moving forward into the new year?
- How will I incorporate gratitude practices this year?
- How will I prioritise my own journey / healing this year?
This year I’m going to double down on tuning in to my feelings and sensations, and monitor how my body is responding. My main focus area this year will be on health as I’ve felt my health and energy levels decline over the last two years.
I you find this useful in discovering your own process and that the year ahead is one of self discovery.
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