While planning to write my goals for the new year, I thought I would start with writing a personal annual review and 3600 words later, it was the best thing I could do.
It was a cathartic experience where I dwelled on the past year on 5 aspects:
- Work
- Health
- Relationships
- Learning
- Fun
In each of these aspects I picked up defining focus areas and people and wrote free form - recollecting the highlights, the mistakes, and the learnings along the way.
Work.
All the roles that you've played in the year, what have you succeeded in, what key lessons you've learnt, and what needs improving.
Health.
I divided this into 2 aspects - Physical and Mental Health - and then focussed on what habits, routines have contributed to improving them and what can I still improve on.
Relationships.
Reflecting on relationships is something we don’t do often enough. From family to friend groups across school, college, work.
I dug deep into how the relationships have evolved over the year. What conflicts happened and how I have resolved them.
Learning.
I focussed on different modes of learning that I depended on. Reading (Books and articles), watching (YouTube), listening (Podcasts). And comparing it to the previous year and reinforcing the positive things I've done in the year.
Fun.
Fun included how travel, sports, hobbies, games, music, movies helped enrich my life. And what do I need more of in the new year.
What all this ended up doing was that it bookended the year - leaving me with a fresh plate to work on for the new year with no lingering thoughts and regrets of what I should or shouldn’t have done.
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