Reflecting at the End of the Year: A Ten Minute Exercise

31,536,000 seconds, 525, 600 minutes, 8,760 hours, and 584 million miles. We may not realize it often, but we traverse a lot of time and distance in one year around the sun. 

Before you begin moving on and making plans for next year, take the time to reflect on what the past 365 days have meant to you. The benefits of a reflective practice in leadership and life are plentiful: Greater self awareness, better decision-making, increased emotional intelligence, exponential learning and growth, and overall well being. 

Here is a quick five step reflection exercise that takes about ten minutes to help you make meaning from another year on this earth.  

1. Find a quiet and comfortable place free from distraction and disruption.

2. Bring a pen, a journal, and a device (for access to your photos, calendar, and any other apps that track your activities, etc.)

3. List as many things from this past year (reference your device if you need a memory jog!) you can think of in each of these categories:

   1. Personal accomplishments

   2. Contributions to others and organizations

   3. Memorable moments

   4. Challenges, failures and hardships

4. Free-write down your responses to these questions:

   1. What am I most proud of? 

   2. What insights can I gather from what I accomplished & contributed?

   3. What am I most disappointed about?

   4. What insights can I gather from my challenges, failures, and hardships?

   5. What of my values or beliefs have changed or strengthened? 

5. Free-write your response to the question: What do I want to keep in my mind and my heart as I approach a new year?

Adult learning teacher and scholar Jack Mezirow said:

"Reflection is the process of critically examining the validity of the assumptions on which we base our beliefs, actions, and expectations."

This simple exercise helps us to not only remember and document the key moments from our year, but also to reflect on what we learned and how we may have grown and changed. 

Photo by Caroline Veronez on Unsplash