Reviewing The Year: How Was It For You?

Reviewing the Year: How Was it For You?

For many of us, this is a time of year when it’s natural to start looking back on the year that’s nearly over, to see how we feel about what went well, what wasn’t so good, and whether we’re in a better place than we were a year ago.

Recently, I read a great article where the author gave his year a “label” along the lines of “The Year of…..”. This idea really resonated with me as being a good way to reflect a little more deeply on 2017, and certainly as being more positive and helpful than simply labelling a year as “good” or “bad”.

For me, 2017 has been “The Year of Progress”.

There are lots of reasons I ended up with this particular word:

At work, I made the effort to consciously focus on doing things that would lead to making progress rather than just being busy. (For a while I even had a home-made poster stuck on my office wall saying “Forward Not Busy” to remind me…it worked!). It’s still a work in progress (there’s that word again!), but I feel proud to say I’ve made some changes in how I plan and execute my work that has made me more productive…and less busy.
I reflected on the the fact I’ve made a lot of progress both with my business and as a coach this year. I may not have achieved everything I set out to do twelve months ago, but this doesn’t mean my business isn’t in far better shape, having moved forward a long way since December 2016.
Mr Life Atlas and I finally sorted several household projects (big and small) in the last quarter of 2017. All of which have been on our to-do list for more than four years – I can actually pinpoint the time they were added to the list, and can assure you this is no exaggeration!!

How would you label 2017?

If you’re in the mood to reflect on what you’ve achieved and how you’ve fared in life over the last twelve months, I thought I’d share a few reflective questions to get you started.

So, while you’ve actually got some time off work to yourself, go find yourself a quiet, comfy space, grab yourself a cuppa (or a glass of something stronger maybe?!), pick up a pen and paper (and perhaps also your diary/calendar/organiser as an aide memoire) and go hunting for the best of 2017.

What did you do for the first time?

What problems did you solve?

What were the highlights of your year?

What worries turned out to be unnecessary?

What do you deserve a pat on the back for?

What did you learn this year?

How did you learn that?

What did you get through and cope with this year that you weren’t sure you could?

What was the most successful work you did?

What or who has brought something positive into your life or work this year?

What is better now than it was at the start of the year?

When did you feel at your best this year?

What did you think about more than anything else?

What are you feeling grateful for?

What advice would you go back and give yourself a year ago if you could?

If someone wrote a book about your last year, what genre would it be? What title would you give it?

So, what was this “the year of” for you? How was it overall? And, most importantly, what does this mean for next year?

I’m Jo Lee, the No Stress Success Coach. I coach career professionals and business owners to achieve the personal success they want, to reduce stress and to develop a happy and successful work life balance.

I offer face to face career coaching and life coaching in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Birmingham and telephone or online coaching across the UK. If anything in this blog post resonates with you, and you’d like to find out more about how coaching works or what coaching with me might be like, please get in touch for an informal chat or to arrange a free initial consultation.