It is a great time of year to set your intentions for 2024 and to think about and feel gratitude for what you have completed in 2023. Find a few exercises below to guide your annual planning and reflection time.
Past
Using your planner, journal, or other tools, take a short tour of your past year and answer the following questions.
- Look back to January of last year. What were you feeling at that time?
- What were the big obstacles that you were getting ready to face and how did you handle them?
- What are you most proud of that you accomplished in the past year?
- Did you start or stop anything that you feel was helpful to reaching these accomplishments? This could be a new habit, routine, attitude, or way of thinking. Think through the different aspects of your life – financial, health, family/relationships, faith, friends, or career.
- If you had to do it over again, what things do you think you would repeat? In other words what were the 20% of tasks that contributed to 80% of the results?
Future
Go to December of next year in your planner and answer the questions below.
- Picture your life in December of next year. What will be there that isn’t there now?
- What are the three most important things that you could do that would have the biggest impact on your life? Be specific in what that would look like such that you know whether you have accomplished it.
- What things are you doing that you no longer need to do? In other words, what are the things in this past year that you did that no longer serve you and that could create space for the new things in your life?
- What will be your theme for this year? This can help motivate you when the going gets tough.
Commitment
The hardest part is the doing. Make a commitment to your annual planning by writing your goals down. Put them in your planner for December of next year, and then set an appointment each week with yourself to add tasks related to these goals.
Need more support? I’d love to help with your accountability as a coach or your business consultant. Learn more here or book a free 30-minute consultation here.
